都知道川普赢了，可是你真的懂美国总统选举制度吗？

关于一名美国总统的诞生需要经过哪些复杂选举步骤的科普知识。...

想必大家的朋友圈都已被“川普当选美国总统”刷屏了。确实，谁能想到此前在民调中一直落后希拉里的川普竟然笑到了最后，成为美国第45任总统！

去年六月，川普宣布参选总统时，各方预测其胜选几率只有1%，我们都把他当笑话看，我们以为选民永远不会选一个电视真人秀明星、一个地产商暴发户做总统，更不必说他还是个抱着离经叛道政见的煽动者。但是，一路走来，他让所有人大跌眼镜！

在各种惊呆、唏嘘之后，静下心来想一想，关于美国总统选举制度，我们了解几分？光在结果出来的最后关头凑凑热闹多没意思，咱们要发挥一贯的学霸精神，知其然，并知其所以然！

所以今天ReadingPro的金牌外教Erik老师特意录制了音频，来为大家科普美国总统选举制度的相关知识，听完下面的音频，你会对成为一名美国总统要经过怎样的复杂步骤有一个清晰的认知！

Alright, a lot has happened today. What exactly does that mean? Why is it important?

Well there’s so much I could talk about.It’s a race between two very different people that stand for very different things. I don’t think there has ever been an election as divisive as this one but let’s forget about policies, let’s talk about the election process and how the president is chosen.

So why does America have an election?

Well, America is built on the idea of democracy, which is that every citizen has a voice. But it’s impossible to have every single person have a choice on every single policy. Instead we have what’s called an election where the people choose a representative that makes a decision on behalf of the people. In other words, the people get to choose their leader.

These representatives are essentially the presidential candidates. In a perfect world, the election is a great thing because it encourages competitiveness amongst the candidates. These candidates must be hard-working individuals who are willing to show their entire life for the world to see. Their accomplishments, their failures, all these things are for everyone to see. After all, when competing against each other, the candidates will do their best to say bad things about each other, so it’s important to have experience and be likeable by the people. Remember, I said in a perfect world this is what it would be like. Given the election we’ve just watched, neither candidate was the perfect person. But that’s a whole different story!

Let’s say for example that the USA has 100 people. If, on Election Day, 80 people vote for Candidate A and 20 people vote for Candidate B, Candidate A clearly won, right? That would mean that candidate A is our new president.

Well, not exactly.

What really matters are the electoral college votes. This December, the members of the Electoral College will cast their votes. Each of the 51 states is represented in the Electoral College, but each state has a different number of seats. The number of seats each state gets is based upon their population. So, for example, a small state like Vermontgets get 3 votes in the Electoral College, whereas a state like California gets 55 votes in the Electoral College. Obviously a state with more people should have more influence in the final count.

So if only the electoral college votes are counted then, what’s the point of voting as an individual citizen? Does your vote even matter?Of course it does! Essentially when you’re voting on the General Election Day, you’re voting for how many seats your party will get during the Electoral College votes. So, instead of having to count millions and millions of votes from every American citizen, the votes are simplified into the Electoral College. If more people vote for Candidate A,then more seats will be given to the members of the Electoral College that support candidate A.

So the people of the USA who voted have done their jobs, all they can do now is waiting for the Electoral College to pass their votes as well!

I hope this helps you in your understanding a little bit about the voting process, thanks for listening!Election process

Every four years, the USA has an an event to choose the leader of the USA. Every four years is called a term and a president can only be the president for two terms.

Citizen

Every person who is allowed to live in the USA is called a citizen.

Policy

These are the rules that a government has in place.

Representative

A single person that is the voice of a larger group of people.

Presidential Candidate

Someone who is a representative of their party in the Presidential election. The two main Presidential Candidates this year were Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

General Election Day

The day that all the American citizens come out to vote for which Presidential Candidate they support.

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