如何选举美国总统，本文主要内容关键词为：美国总统论文，此文献不代表本站观点，内容供学术参考，文章仅供参考阅读下载。
Introduction The race for the White House is on.Americanpoliticians say that the way they elect their president
isone of the most open and demo-cratic（注：democratic[
]adj.民主的，民众的）processes in the world.But while theelection race in some countries takes just a few weeks,USpresidential candidates must have the stamina（注：stamina[
]n.精力，耐力，持久力）to undergo（注：undergo[
]vt.经受， 经历， 忍受）apolitical marathon（注：marathon[
]n.[ 体] 马拉松赛跑）.Find out how the system works byfollowing our player around the baseball diamond（注：diamond[
]n.[棒]内场，棒球场）.
1.The Primaries
The primary is the first step in choosing a party'spresidential candidate.In most countries,the party picks thecandidate.But in the US,voters who de-clare support for oneparty or another get to choose from the list of
candidates.The candidates,cam-paigning（注：campaign[
] vi.参加竞选）against other members of the same party,mustwin enough state primaries to give them a ma-jority of delegatesat the party convention（注：convention[
]n.政党代表大会）in the summer.Some states,such as lowa（注：Iowa[
]n.艾奥瓦州（美国州名））,use a caucus（注：caucus[
]n.[美] 政党核心会议）system rather than primaries to choosetheir dele-gates.Whereas in primaries people simply indicate（注：indicate[＇indikeit]vt.标示，指出）at the ballot（注：ballot[
]n.选票）box which delegates they support,caucuses(the wordderives from（注：derive[di＇raiv]vi.起源（与from搭配））anIndian word for a gathering)are more complex and work byselecting delegates through a number of stages.
2.The Convention
The party conventions are one of the great set pieces ofAmerican politics.Each state arrives at the hall with its owndelegates and banners （注：banner[
]n.旗，旗帜，旗号）declaring which presidential candidateit supports.By this stage,the party normally knows who has won.The delegates from each state formally choose their championto go forward as presidential candi-date.The candidate with themost delegates wins—and normally secures（注：secure[
]vt.获得，弄到，使安全）the support of party ri-vals（注：rival[
]n.竞争对手，敌手）.The winning candidate also names avice —presidential running mate.
3.The Campaign
The rival candidates square up（注：square[
]vt.～up 摆好架势）for the presi- dential campaign proper.Policies are refined,often to take into account thesupporters of the candidates who have been eliminated（注：eliminate[i＇limineit]vt.（比赛中）淘汰）.This stage of thecam- paign is shorter than the slog（注：slog[
] n.跋涉，步履艰难的行进）through the state primaries.Thereis heavy spending on nationwide television publicity,and thereare usually televised debates between the candidates.In thefinal weeks,the contenders（注：contender[
]n.竞争者）typically concentrate their attention on thebig so-called"swing（注：swing[
]adj.有决定性影响的 ）states"as they battle it out for thecritical（注：critical[
]adj.关键性的）electoral college votes.
4.Election Day
Some 100 million people are likely to vote on 7 November2000.But the president is not elected di-rectly by the voters.Each state has a number of Electoral College members whoactually vote for the president on behalf of the people.Thenumber of members reflects the state's representation inCongress.Whichever candidate wins the most votes in eachstate wins all of that state's Electoral College members.Theother candidates get none.Once a candidate gets a majority ofmembers from across the states,the election is over in thepublic's mind.But in fact the Electoral College members doformally meet and vote for the president and the stateresults are counted before the full Congress in January.
引言 进军白宫的比赛正在进行。美国政客说他们选举总统的方法是世界上最公开、最民主的方式之一。可是，在某些国家选举比赛持续不过几周，而美国的总统候选人则必须有足够的耐力跑完一场政治马拉松。让我们参照棒球运动员在赛场上的足迹来了解一下美国总统选举的运作。
1.预选
预选是选择一党的总统候选人的第一步。在大多数国家，政党选择其候选人。但在美国，声称支持这个或那个政党的选举人，得从候选人名单中选择候选人。候选人要与同党的其他人选竞争一番。他们必须赢得足够多的州级预选选票以拥有多数代表出席在夏天举行的政党代表大会。有些州，比如艾奥瓦州，采取的是政党核心会议而非预选来选举他们的代表。在预选中选民只是通过投票箱表明他们支持哪些代表，而政党核心会议（caucus源自印第安语，意为聚会）则更为复杂，须通过若干步骤方能选出代表。
2.代表大会
政党代表大会是美国政治中重要的固定程序之一。每一州都派其代表携其竞选旗前往会议厅，表明他们支持的是哪一位总统候选人。到这一阶段，政党通常已经清楚谁胜谁负了。来自各州的代表正式选出他们的优胜者作总统候选人。赢得最多代表支持的候选人获胜——通常也获得了党内竞选对手的支持。获胜的候选人还提出一位副总统竞选伙伴。
3.竞选
互为对手的候选人摆好架势准备开始真正意义上的总统竞选。他们调整种种政策，往往还要将淘汰出局的候选人的支持者考虑在内。比起州级预选的漫漫赛程，竞选这一阶段要短些。候选人不惜耗费巨资在全国范围内的电视上进行宣传，而且经常与对手展开电视辩论。在最后的数周内，竞争对手往往将注意力集中到大的所谓“有决定性影响的州”，因为它们将决出关键的总统选举团选票。
4.选举日
2000年11月7日约有1亿人将参加总统选举。但总统并不是直接由选民选出的。每个州有若干选举团成员，他们代表本州公民选举总统。每个州选举团成员的人数反映该州在国会的议员人数。哪位竞选人赢得了某一州的最多选票便赢得了该州所有的选举团成员。其他竞选人则一无所获。一旦一位竞选人赢得全国大部分选举团成员的选票，选举便在公众的心目中结束了。但实际上选举团成员还要正式聚在一起选举总统，各州选票数要在次年1月份国会全体会议上清点。