It’s costly, long and exhausting: Welcome to America’s elections

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Madeleine Bialke, an American artist who moved to London last year, was shocked by this summer’s U.K. election.

The entire campaign lasted just six weeks. There were no ads on her TV. And after the election ended, the winner took power the next day, not months later.

“It was so nice to have an election that was so short," she said. “It made me realize how crazy our elections are in the U.S." Americans have become accustomed to the idea that their presidential race lasts nearly two years, involves spending billions of dollars and bombards them with nonstop ads on TV, radio, billboards and smartphones. Not to mention the yard signs.

This U.S. election is likely to be the most expensive ever, with an estimated $15.9 billion in spending on all federal races, eclipsing the $15.1 billion in 2020, according to Open Secrets, a nonpartisan group that tracks campaign spending. If you adjust for inflation, this election is slightly cheaper than 2020.

But both contests are nearly double what the 2016 race cost and triple what elections used to cost in the early 2000s, even adjusted for price hikes since then. What many Americans may not realize is that U.S. elections are an outlier, especially compared to other industrialized democracies.

Canada’s campaign typically lasts between 36 and 50 days. The total campaign bill for its 2021 election: $69 million in today’s dollars—about 1/27th the price tag per voter south of the border. U.S.

elections cost about 40 times more per person than the U.K. or Germany. All of Britain’s parties spent a total of $80 million, in today’s prices, on their campaigns during the 2019 election.