Is the Electoral College Broken?: Crash Course US Government #5 · CrashCourse
探讨美国选举人团制度的运作方式及其争议，适合练习政治话题和逻辑表达。
In the year 2000, George W.
2000年，乔治·W·
Bush won the presidency, even though over half a million fewer people voted for him than for Al Gore.
布什赢得了总统选举，尽管投票给他的选民人数比投票给阿尔·戈尔的选民人数少了超过50万。
The same thing happened in 2016, when Donald Trump won— even though 2.9 million fewer people voted for him than for Hillary Clinton.
同样的事情也发生在 2016 年，当时唐纳德·特朗普赢得了大选——尽管投票给他的选民人数比投票给希拉里·克林顿的选民人数少了 290 万。
In fact, in five different presidential elections in U.S.
事实上，在美国的五次不同的总统选举中都出现了这种情况。
history, the winner of the most votes lost the election as a whole.
在历史上，获得最多选票的人往往最终会输掉整个选举。
It sounds like upside-down math, but it’s actually caused by something that goes all the way back to the constitution:
这听起来像是某种“反常”的数学运算，但实际上其根源可以追溯到宪法本身。
the Electoral College.
选举人团（Electoral College）。
So, what’s the deal?
那么，到底是怎么回事呢？
Is the Electoral College broken?
选举人团制度出问题了吗？
Or could it be that it’s actually working exactly how the Founding Fathers intended it to?
或者，这恰恰是开国元勋们所期望的那样吗？
Hi!
嗨！
I'm Kousha Navidar, this is Crash Course, and we’re answering Big Questions on U.S.
我是库莎·纳维达尔（Kousha Navidar），这是《速成课程》（Crash Course）节目。在这个节目中，我们将探讨关于美国的一些重要问题。
Government.
政府。
[THEME MUSIC]
[主题音乐]
We love to debate about the Electoral College, but what actually is it in the first place?
我们很喜欢讨论“选举人团”这个制度，但这个制度究竟是什么呢？
In simplest terms, the Electoral College is the group of people who actually cast their votes for president.
简单来说，选举人团就是那些实际投票选出总统的人组成的团体。
They represent the will of their given state’s voters.
他们代表了所在州选民的意愿。
And while the U.S.
虽然美国……
isn’t the only country where people elect their leader indirectly, no one else does it quite like us.
这个国家并不是唯一一个通过间接方式选举领导人的国家；不过，确实没有其他国家的选举方式与我们如此相似。
And the Electoral College isn’t a recent invention.
选举人团（Electoral College）并非最近才出现的制度。
Let’s check in with Buff, our resident historian, who’s almost as handsome as me, for how this started.
让我们来听听我们的“驻场历史学家”布夫的看法吧。他几乎和我一样英俊，他会告诉我们这一切究竟是如何开始的。
Hi, Kousha!
嗨，Kousha！
You’re glowing.
你看起来光彩照人（或：容光焕发）。
Alright, let’s get into it and stop history from being a mystery.
好吧，让我们开始讨论吧，不要再让历史成为一个个未解之谜了。
So, the year was 1787.
那一年是1787年。
The drafters were writing the Constitution, and they found themselves with a pretty heavy question: How do you pick a president fairly??
宪法的起草者们正在撰写这部法律，他们面临一个非常棘手的问题：如何才能公平地选出总统呢？
They agreed citizens should have a say– citizens at the time of course meaning white land-owning men.
他们一致认为公民应该有发言权；当然，这里的“公民”指的是那些拥有土地的白人男性。
But running a national election by popular
但是，通过全民投票来组织全国性选举的方式其实并不符合民主原则（即“人民当家作主”的理念）。
vote, where the people directly decide the winner, sounded like a logistical nightmare — even with only 13 states at the time.
在那种由人民直接决定获胜者的选举制度中，投票过程听起来简直就是一场后勤噩梦……即便当时只有 13 个州参与选举也是如此。
Another concern among the southern states was their large population of enslaved people.
南方各州另一个令人担忧的问题是，那里有大量被奴役的人口。
While the populations between the northern and southern states were roughly equal, around a third of the southern population were enslaved,
虽然北部各州与南部各州的人口数量大致相当，但南部约有三分之一的人口处于奴隶制状态。
and thus nonvoting, giving the South less power under a popular vote system.
因此，这些地区的人没有投票权，这使得南方在基于普选制度的政治体系中拥有的权力相对较弱。
Another idea was to give Congress members or governors the task of picking the president.
另一个提议是让国会议员或州长来负责挑选总统。
But some worried that would give the
但有些人担心这可能会带来……（此处原文未完整，具体后果需结合上下文判断）
legislative branch too much power, and pave the way for an election process more secretive and cutthroat than a tribal council meeting on Survivor.
如果立法部门拥有过多的权力，那么就会为选举过程铺平道路，使其变得比《幸存者》（Survivor）节目中的部落会议还要神秘、残酷和充满竞争。
So, somewhere between “everybody chooses the president” and “only elected leaders do”, the founders struck a last-minute compromise:
因此，在“所有人都可以选举总统”与“只有经过选举产生的领导人才能行使这一权力”这两种观点之间，美国的开国者们最终在最后一刻达成了妥协：
each state gets a slate of electors,
每个州都会获得一定数量的选举人代表。
based on how many Senators they’ve got (which is always two) and how many representatives in the House they’ve got (which varies,
这取决于他们拥有多少参议员（参议员的数量始终为两人），以及他们在众议院中有多少众议员（众议员的数量会有所不同）。
depending on the state’s population).
（具体数字取决于该州的人口规模。）
Then those electors actually cast votes for the next President.
然后，这些选举人会实际投票选出下一任总统。