美国有线新闻 CNN 2012-11-08
时间:2018-12-24 作者:英语课 分类:CNN2012年(十一)月
First up, we want to talk a bit about how this day is going to go. For starters, it’s already going. In a unique election day tradition, two New Hampshire towns started voting at midnight. For the rest of the country, polls started opening up as early as 5:00 Eastern time this morning. By noon Eastern, voters will be casting ballots 1 in all 50 states. Polls start closing at 6:00 p.m. Eastern. And then the closing kind of move their way across the country. The voters are deciding on the presidency 2, of course, but also U.S. Senate and House races, some governors races, state and local elections, and proposed state laws. We’re going to have more on that coming up.
The presidency is expected to be a close race. In fact, a new CNN poll showed president Obama and former Governor Romney in a dead heat. Governor Romney is scheduled to visit Ohio and Pennsylvania today. President Obama is planning to spend the day in Chicago. Now, as the votes are counted and the election results start coming in, both candidates are going to be keeping a close eye on the electoral college count. That is the big prize today. Tom Foreman explains why and how this works.
The electoral college in its essence is basically a compromise, a compromise between having Congress select all of our president, which Congress once did, and letting us by popular vote select our president. The electoral college is what actually elects a president. We all think we do, we don’t really. We don’t really. What we do is we vote for these people. These people are the ones who actually have the vote that actuate everything, that make it happen. Each state selects its electors from a bunch of the good citizenry of that state, and they are proportional by the size of the congressional delegation 4 from the states. For example, all of your Congress members and your senators combined produce the number of electoral votes you get in your state. So, California gets a whole lot, Texas gets a lot, Montana, North Dakota, not so much. The behavior of the electors is one of the great acts of trust in this country, because only in a few places are they actually bound to what the people and the population say. The can change their minds, and there have been rare occasions in which electors have gone to the actual process of electing the president and said, I disagree with my state, and they have cast another vote. One of the big reasons you always hear for the electoral college is that it evens out power a little bit. If you just had a popular vote, then the most populous 5 state would really consolidate 6 all the power, and if you lived in a place like North Dakota, you would have very, very little influence or ability to create any influence, unless you banded together with a bunch of other states. And beyond that, all the campaigning would only happen in giant population centers. The biggest con 3 you hear is that it can override 7 the popular vote. People can triangulate the electoral votes, and actually win the presidency when most of the people in the country do not want that person in the Oval Office.
So 435 congressional seats, plus 100 seats in the U.S. Senate and three electors for the District of Columbia, that all adds up to 538 electoral college votes. It takes a majority of these votes, at least 270 to win the presidency. John King looks at the math for both of the candidates to see how votes could add up to history.
Look at this, if president can take Iowa, can take Wisconsin and can take Ohio, it’s game over. If nothing else changed on the map, that would get the president to 271, and it would be game over. That’s why the president is ending his campaign right here in the heartland, places where he can talk about the auto 8 bailout. He thinks that’s a big plus for him. So that’s one way. That is the president’s quickest way. I won’t say it’s the easiest, but it’s his easiest, not an easy way to 270. So what does that mean? It means for starters, Governor Romney has to take the state of Ohio.
Let’s take these back and make them tossups and show you. That was the president’s fastest way. How does Governor Romney get there? He has to win the state of Florida. Not negotiable. Governor Romney needs Florida, he needs those 29 electoral votes. He has to take North Carolina. We already have it leaning that way, and he has to take Virginia as well. That’s 13 more. That would get Governor Romney there. Then, the governor’s most reasonable scenario 9 is to take Ohio. No Republican has ever won without it. If Governor Romney can get those electoral votes, plus Virginia, North Carolina and Ohio, what does that do? That would get him to 266. Over here in the east, he would need just one more, any one of the remaining states. If Governor Romney can do Florida, Virginia, North Carolina and Ohio, any one of the remaining states would put him over the top. That’s what make this one so, so, so important.
So who do you want to win? We’ve seen so many polls in this race for so many weeks now, we’re taking our own informal poll at cnnstudentnews.com. Tell us whether you’re hoping for the incumbent 10 president, the former governor or someone else to lead the country.
- They're counting the ballots. 他们正在计算选票。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- The news of rigged ballots has rubbed off much of the shine of their election victory. 他们操纵选票的消息使他们在选举中获得的胜利大为减色。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
- Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。
- We must be fair and consider the reason pro and con.我们必须公平考虑赞成和反对的理由。
- The motion is adopted non con.因无人投反对票,协议被通过。
- The statement of our delegation was singularly appropriate to the occasion.我们代表团的声明非常适合时宜。
- We shall inform you of the date of the delegation's arrival.我们将把代表团到达的日期通知你。
- London is the most populous area of Britain.伦敦是英国人口最稠密的地区。
- China is the most populous developing country in the world.中国是世界上人口最多的发展中国家。
- The two banks will consolidate in July next year. 这两家银行明年7月将合并。
- The government hoped to consolidate ten states to form three new ones.政府希望把十个州合并成三个新的州。
- The welfare of a child should always override the wishes of its parents.孩子的幸福安康应该永远比父母的愿望来得更重要。
- I'm applying in advance for the authority to override him.我提前申请当局对他进行否决。
- Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
- The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。