What is Electoral College? 什么是美国的选举人团？
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What is Electoral College? 美国选举人团是怎么回事？
When President Donald Trump was announced the winner of the 2016 USA Presidential election, there was one thing that didn't seem right democratically. Hillary Clinton had won the popular vote, but lost the election. So, what happened?
2016年，当特朗普总统被宣布为美国总统大选的获胜者时，有一件事似乎有悖于民主制度：希拉里·克林顿获得了普选的多数票，但却输了选举。这是怎么回事？
How Does It Work 这是如何进行的
In 1787, the founding fathers established the Electoral College as a compromise between the election of the President by a vote in Congress and a popular vote of qualified citizens. Popular vote is a vote process by all qualified citizens of the United States, while Electoral votes are awarded by states. On the map above from the 2016 presidential elections, red states are the ones that Trump won while blue states were won by Clinton in the Electoral College votes. The number in each state represent the number of votes that each state is allocated. Each state is given a share of the United States’ 538 electoral votes based off its population, with totals ranging from California's 55 to a number of states with only three. To make it clear, each state's number of electors is equal to the combined total of the state's membership in the Senate and House of Representatives.
1787年，开国元勋们建立了选举团投票制度，作为在国会通过投票选举总统和由合格公民进行全民投票之间的折衷方案。民众投票是由美国所有合格公民进行的投票过程，而选举人的选票则由州授予。上图显示2016年总统选举结果，红色是特朗普在选举团投票中获胜的州，而蓝色则是克林顿在选举团投票中获胜的州。每个州的票数代表每个州被分配的票数。根据人口计算，每个州在美国538张选举人票中都有一部分，从加州的55到一些州的只有3个。为了说明这一点，每个州的选举人数等于该州参众两院成员的总和。
In order to win the Presidential election, one need to secure at least 270 votes of the 538 votes. Most of the states will allot all of their electoral votes to the winning candidate in that state, and electors are required to pledge to vote for the winning candidate. While the electoral vote has given the same result as the popular vote in most elections, there has been a few cases that it didn't, and most recently case is the 2016 election.
为了赢得总统大选，需要至少获得538票中的270票。大多数州都将所有选票分配给该州的获胜候选人，并且选举人必须保证为获胜候选人投票。尽管在大多数选举中，选举投票的结果与普选结果相同，但也有少数情况不是，最近的一次是2016年的美国总统选举。
Why the US Hold General Election Then? 那为什么美国要举行大选呢？
If in the end, it is Electoral College that determines who will be the next president, why the United States holds a general election then? Well, the general election vote, in reality, is not actually a vote to choose the president. But through that vote, the state will use the results to appoint their electors. In addition, the winning candidate's State political party selects the individuals who will be electors.
如果最终是选举团决定谁将成为下一任总统，那么美国为什么要举行大选呢？其实，大选投票实际上并不是选举总统的投票，而是通过大选，各州根据选举结果任命本州的选举人；实际上就是各州获胜的总统候选人所在的政党任命选举人。
So, you can win the most populated states and still not be a winner?
这意味着您可以赢得人口最多的州，却不一定获胜？
The answer is yes. For example, Hillary won in states with some of the highest populations, like California and New York, while Trump won in places with smaller populations, as in most of the country between Montana and Florida. Those smaller states’ electoral votes added up and that's why Trump won.
答案是“是的”。例如，希拉里在一些人口最多的州如加利福尼亚州和纽约州获胜，而特朗普在人口较少的地方如蒙大拿州和佛罗里达州之间的大多数州获胜，这些较小州的选举人票数加了起来，最后是特朗普获胜。
How Often Does This Happen?
这种情况经常发生吗？
This would be the fifth time a candidate has won the popular vote but failed to win the election. Before Clinton’s loss, the most recent one is fellow Democrat Al Gore, whose supporters outvoted George W. Bush's in 2000, but he narrowly lost the electoral vote via the highly-contested state of Florida. Before that, it also happened in 1888, 1876 and 1824.
这是第五次发生候选人赢得普选而未能赢得总统选举的情况。在希拉里·克林顿失利之前，最近的一位是民主党人戈尔，在2000年他的普选票数超过了乔治·W·布什，但他在备受争议的佛罗里达州以微弱优势输掉了选举人票。在此之前，这种情况还发生在1888年，1876年和1824年。
Why Was the Electoral College Created? 为什么成立选举人团？
Most of the founding fathers were actually afraid of democracy, for example if majority of the people in a nation have ill intentions, they will have the power to elect a candidate with ill intentions. James Madison worried about factions, which he defined as:
大多数开国元勋实际上都对民主制度政府有一些担心，例如，如果一个国家的大多数人都怀有恶意，他们就有权选出一个怀有恶意的候选人。詹姆斯·麦迪逊担心“派系”在此中的负面作用，他将其定义为：
"Groups of citizens who have a common interest in some proposal that would either violate the rights of other citizens or would harm the nation as a whole."
“某些有着共同利益的公民群体，这些群体通过提案获取其共同利益，但过程中要么侵犯其他公民的权利，要么损害整个国家。”
This was later dubbed the tyranny of the majority by Alexis de Tocqueville. As Alexander Hamilton writes in The Federalist Papers, the Constitution is designed to ensure "that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications." The point of the Electoral College is to preserve the sense of the people, while at the same time ensuring that a president is chosen "by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice."
这后来被亚历西斯·德·托克维尔称为“多数人的暴政”。正如亚历山大·汉密尔顿在《联邦党人文件》中所写的那样，宪法旨在确保“总统职位永远不会落在任何没有获得显赫学位的必要资格的人的肩上。” 选举团的宗旨是维护“人民意识“，同时确保总统由”最有能力分析适合该职位的素质的人选出，并在有利于深思熟虑的情况下采取行动，并明智地综合所有适合他们选择的理由和诱因。”
So, what do you think about the Electoral College? Let us know what you think in the comment section. Thanks.
那么，你对选举人团和普选有什么看法？在评论留下您的想法。谢谢。
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