Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): Para la próxima elección, deberíamos informarnos mejor antes de votar. - For the next election, we should inform ourselves better before voting.

Para la próxima elección ≈ for the next election / by the next election
→ We’re talking about something we should do in preparation for that future event.

If you said por la próxima elección, it would sound more like:

because of the next election (reason / cause), which is not what the sentence wants to emphasize.

So:

para + time expression = by/for that time (deadline / future point)
por + time expression = approximately during that time or because of that time

Here it’s clearly about preparing for that future election, so para is correct.

Why la próxima elección and not el próximo elección?

In Spanish, words ending in -ción are almost always feminine.

elección → feminine noun → la elección
Therefore: la próxima elección (“the next election”)

We say:

la elección importante
esta elección
una elección difícil

Never: el elección or el próximo elección.

Could you say “para la elección próxima” instead of “para la próxima elección”?

Grammatically, la elección próxima is possible, but it’s not the usual or most natural order in everyday speech.

In Spanish, when talking about things like next week, next month, next election, the typical, natural order is:

la próxima semana
el próximo mes
la próxima elección

Putting the adjective after (la elección próxima) sounds more formal, literary, or a bit unusual in this context. So:

✔ para la próxima elección = natural, everyday Spanish
◊ para la elección próxima = grammatically okay, but feels marked / literary

What does “deberíamos” express here? Why not just “debemos”?

Deberíamos is the conditional form of deber, and it usually softens the idea of obligation. It often translates as:

“we should” (not as strong as “we must”)

Compare:

Debemos informarnos mejor.
→ We must / have to inform ourselves better. (strong obligation)
Deberíamos informarnos mejor.
→ We should inform ourselves better. (a recommendation, suggestion, moral obligation, but softer)

So deberíamos expresses a recommendation or advice, rather than a strict duty.

What is the literal meaning of “informarnos”, and why is it reflexive?

Informarnos comes from informar (to inform) + nos (ourselves):

informar = to inform (someone else)
- Informamos a la gente. → We inform the people.
informarse (reflexive) = to inform oneself / to get informed / to find out
- Debemos informarnos. → We should inform ourselves, we should get informed.

In this sentence, informarnos means “to get informed” or “to educate ourselves (about the issues)”, not informing other people.

Using the reflexive here focuses the action on us as both the subject and the receiver of the information.

Could the sentence also be “Deberíamos nos informar mejor antes de votar”?

You can put the pronoun before the conjugated verb, but the usual, most natural options are:

Nos deberíamos informar mejor…
Deberíamos informarnos mejor… ✔ (very common and natural)

Deberíamos nos informar… is technically understandable, but it sounds awkward and unnatural. In standard Spanish:

When there is a conjugated verb + infinitive, you may:
- Put the pronoun before the conjugated verb: nos deberíamos informar
- Or attach it to the infinitive: deberíamos informarnos

So here, the best choices are:

Nos deberíamos informar mejor…
Deberíamos informarnos mejor… ← the original, very natural

What does “mejor” add to “informarnos”? Could it be left out?

Mejor means “better” and is working as an adverb modifying how we inform ourselves:

informarnos = to inform ourselves / get informed
informarnos mejor = to get better informed / to inform ourselves better

If you remove mejor:

Deberíamos informarnos antes de votar.
→ We should inform ourselves before voting. (neutral)

With mejor, you emphasize improvement:

We did inform ourselves, but not well enough before; next time, we should do it better.

So it’s not required grammatically, but it adds meaning.

Why is it “antes de votar” and not “antes que votar” or “antes de que votar”?

Here’s the pattern:

antes de + infinitive
- Used when both actions have the same subject.
- Antes de votar, deberíamos informarnos.
  → The same “we” [nosotros] both inform themselves and vote.
antes de que + subjunctive
- Used when there are two different subjects.
- Antes de que la gente vote, deberíamos informarles.
  → We (one subject) should inform them before they vote (another subject).

So in your sentence, the subject is “we” for both actions, so Spanish uses:

antes de + infinitive → antes de votar

The structure “antes que votar” is not correct in this context.

Why is “votar” in the infinitive? Is it like using “to vote” in English?

Yes, it’s very similar.

After prepositions like antes de, para, sin, después de, Spanish almost always uses the infinitive:

antes de votar → before voting / before we vote
para ganar → in order to win
sin decir nada → without saying anything
después de comer → after eating

So votar stays in the infinitive because it comes after antes de and the subject is already understood (we).

Where is the subject “we” (nosotros) in this sentence?

The subject is implicit in the verb ending -íamos of deberíamos.

deberíamos → first person plural (we) in the conditional
→ we should

Spanish doesn’t need to state the subject pronoun unless you want to emphasize it:

(Nosotros) deberíamos informarnos mejor…
Both are correct, but the version without “nosotros” is more natural unless you’re stressing “we” in contrast with someone else.

So the subject “we” is carried inside the verb form deberíamos.

Is there any difference between “informarnos mejor” and “estar mejor informados”?

Both can express a similar idea, but there’s a nuance:

informarnos mejor
- Emphasizes the action/process: to get better informed, to do more research.
- Focus on what we should do.
estar mejor informados
- Emphasizes the result/state: to be better informed.
- Focus on how we should be.

Examples:

Para la próxima elección, deberíamos informarnos mejor.
→ We should do more to inform ourselves.
Para la próxima elección, deberíamos estar mejor informados.
→ We should be in a better-informed state by then.

Both are natural; the original focuses on the process of informing ourselves.

Does “elección” always mean “election,” or can it also mean “choice”?

Elección has both meanings, depending on context:

Political election
- la elección presidencial → the presidential election
- las elecciones → the elections
Choice / selection
- Buena elección. → Good choice.
- Tienes muchas opciones y solo una elección. → You have many options and only one choice.

In “para la próxima elección”, context clearly points to a political election (because of “votar” / to vote).

Why is there a comma after “Para la próxima elección”?

The comma separates an introductory phrase from the main clause.

Para la próxima elección, (sets the time / context)
deberíamos informarnos mejor antes de votar. (main idea)

It’s similar to English:

For the next election, we should get better informed before voting.

You could also place the phrase at the end without a comma:

Deberíamos informarnos mejor antes de votar para la próxima elección.

Both are grammatically correct; the original just emphasizes the time frame first.

Is there any difference in how this sentence would be said in Latin America vs Spain?

Grammatically and lexically, this sentence is perfectly natural in both Latin America and Spain.

A few notes:

elección, deberíamos, informarnos, votar → all are standard everywhere.
In both regions, you’ll often hear:
- Para las próximas elecciones, deberíamos informarnos mejor antes de votar.
  (using the plural elecciones)

So there is no special regional change needed; the sentence is neutral and widely understood across the Spanish-speaking world.

Could “deberíamos” be replaced by “tendríamos que” or “habría que”? Would the meaning change?

Yes, they can be replaced, with small nuances:

Deberíamos informarnos mejor…
→ We should (moral duty / recommendation).
Tendríamos que informarnos mejor…
→ We would have to / we’d need to.
Feels a bit more like necessity/requirement, but still soft.
Habría que informarse mejor…
→ One should / it would be necessary to get better informed.
- More impersonal: doesn’t explicitly say “we,” more like “people” in general.

All three could fit, but deberíamos keeps the focus on our responsibility and is a direct but polite recommendation.