I'm really new to using Django and I've been stuck on this for weeks. I've got a list of voters which is named thumbs under each candidate, and it is a many-to-many field which is populated once a user votes. How can I check if a user is already in thumbs (i.e. has already voted) so that I display components differently based on this?

Here is what I've got:

myTemplateFile.html

                    {% if request.user == candidate.thumbs.all %}
                   <small style="color:grey; font-size:10px;">you've already voted here</small> 
                    <a id="Thumbs"   value="thumbsup" data-toggle="tooltip" title="upVote: I like this candidate" role="button">
                      <svg id="{{poll.id}}{{candidate.id}}thumbsup" width="1em" height="1em" viewBox="0 0 16 16" 
                      xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
                      <path fill-rule="evenodd"/>
                      </svg><span id="i_like_this"><span  style="color:white; font-size:xx-small" id="{{poll.id}}{{candidate.id}}up">{{candidate.thumbsup}} </span></span><font  style="color:white; font-size:xx-small;" id="{{poll.id}}{{candidate.id}}approve">&nbsp;approved</font> 
                  </a>
                  
                  

                  <a id="Thumbs"  value="thumbsdown" data-toggle="tooltip" title="downVote: I dont like this candidate" role="button">
                      <svg id="{{poll.id}}{{candidate.id}}thumbsdown" width="1em" height="1em" viewBox="0 0 16 16" 
                      fill="currentColor" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
                      <path fill-rule="evenodd"/>
                      </svg>
                      <span  style="color:white; font-size:xx-small;" id="{{poll.id}}{{candidate.id}}down">{{candidate.thumbsdown}} </span><font style="color:white; font-size:xx-small;" id="{{poll.id}}{{candidate.id}}reject">&nbsp;rejected</font>  
                  </a>
                    {% else %}
                    <a id="Thumbs"   value="thumbsup" data-toggle="tooltip" title="upVote: I like this candidate" role="button">
                        <svg id="{{poll.id}}{{candidate.id}}thumbsup" width="1em" height="1em" viewBox="0 0 16 16" 
                        xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
                        <path fill-rule="evenodd"/>
                        </svg><span style="color:white; font-size:xx-small;" id="i_like_this"><span  style="color:white; font-size:xx-small;" id="{{poll.id}}{{candidate.id}}up">{{candidate.thumbsup}} </span></span><font  style="color:white; font-size:xx-small;" id="{{poll.id}}{{candidate.id}}approve">&nbsp;approve</font> 
                    </a>
                    
                    
  
                    <a id="Thumbs"  value="thumbsdown" data-toggle="tooltip" title="downVote: I dont like this candidate" role="button">
                        <svg id="{{poll.id}}{{candidate.id}}thumbsdown" width="1em" height="1em" viewBox="0 0 16 16" 
                        fill="currentColor" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
                        <path fill-rule="evenodd"/>
                        </svg>
                        <span style="color:white; font-size:xx-small;"  id="{{poll.id}}{{candidate.id}}down">{{candidate.thumbsdown}} </span><font class"" style="color:white; font-size:xx-small;" id="{{poll.id}}{{candidate.id}}reject">&nbsp;reject</font>  
                    </a>
                    {% endif %}

myModelFile.py

class PollCandidate(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=500, blank=True, null=True)
    candidate = models.ForeignKey(Candidate, blank=True, null=True, on_delete=models.SET_NULL)
    poll = models.ForeignKey(Polls, on_delete=models.SET_NULL, blank=True, null=True, default=None)
    points = models.IntegerField(default='1')
    thumbsup = models.IntegerField(default='0')
    thumbsdown = models.IntegerField(default='0')
    thumbs = models.ManyToManyField(User, related_name='pollthumbs', default=None, blank=True)
    def __str__(self):
        return f"{self.name}, in {self.poll} "

class Votes(models.Model):
    candidate = models.ForeignKey(PollCandidate, related_name='candidateid', on_delete=models.CASCADE, default=None, blank=True)
    poll = models.ForeignKey(Polls, related_name='pollid', on_delete=models.CASCADE)
    user = models.ForeignKey(User, related_name='voterid',on_delete=models.CASCADE, default=None, blank=True)
    vote = models.BooleanField(default=True)
    def __str__(self):
        return f"{self.user} voted for {self.candidate.name} in {self.poll}"

I'll appreciate every suggestion