[转载]美国选举:选举团

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2012.08.16
普选与选举团选举
在2012年11月6日的美国全国选举中,估计会有一亿多名选民参加投票(普选)。可是,最终只有538人(选举团)会在12月17日于美国50个州的首府和华盛顿哥伦比亚特区举行的选举中选出下一届美国总统。
这种间接选举制是由《宪法》制定者在1787年创立。在这种制度下,联邦政府不仅代表人民,还代表各州。
选举团制度要求一名总统候选人不仅要具备全国声望,也要获得不同地区的普遍青睐。《普选之后》(After the People Vote)一书作者约翰· 福捷(John C. Fortier)说:“选举团的结果之一,是使第三党、地区派系或者声望较低的人物更难当选总统。”
选举团在十二月的投票几乎总是基于选民在十一月普选中的投票结果。选举团选举中的获胜者几乎总是赢得全国最多普选票。可是由于除两州之外各州都有“赢家通吃”的规定,选举团选出的总统有时可能不是在全国普选中得票最多的候选人,2000年的选举就是如此。
选举团制度催生了一种选举战略。总统候选人在竞选中較不关心稳属于民主党和共和党的州,而是将人力和竞选经费集中用于两党差距相对较小而能决定胜负的州--佛罗里达州和俄亥俄州就是两个典型的例子。
宪法
《美国宪法》制定者在1787年达成一项重大妥协,创建了两院制的国会,其中众议院的席位按人口分配,参议院则是每州各有两席。
制宪者进而确保总统具有足够的权力和声望,能够独立于国会。他们崇尚分权制。
同样,他们没有让各州直接选出总统,而是设计出选举团制度,由各州任命选举人。选举人的选择方式由州议会决定;到1830年代,所有选举人都是在普选中选出。
选举团的另一个特色也值得注意,即各州的选举人分别在本州投票选举总统,并不是聚集在同一个地点举行选举。
每一州的选举人数目等同于该州国会议员的总和,即两名参议员加上若干众议员,后者的数目基于每十年一次的人口普查而定。2012年,人口众多的加利福尼亚州有55名选举人,阿拉斯加和特拉华等州则只有三人。
选举团现在有538名选举人,包括435名众议员、100名参议员以及华盛顿哥伦比亚特区的三名代表。总统候选人需要得到至少270张选举人票才能当选。
两党制
制宪者并未拟定一套政党制度,当然也不是设计出选举团来提倡此一制度。可是随着时间的推移,选举团强化了民主党和共和党两党争雄的局面。
首先,各州投票结果的计算采用“赢者通吃”的方法。在该制度下,一个政党必须强大到能够赢得一州的普选,否则,即使获得的票数占有很大百分比,在选举人票的分配中仍然被忽略不计。
其次,在选举团制度下,一个政党必须努力赢得全国不同地区的州。候选人不可能只赢得南部或东北部而获得多数票。事实上,近年来几乎每名胜选的总统候选人都拿下美国多数州。
如果选举团的投票不分胜负,则根据《宪法第12条修正案》,由众议院选出总統。每个州在众议院的代表团(代表该州的所有众议员)享有一票,在获得最多选举人票的前三名候选人中选出一人为总统。
很多美国人都想把总統选举制度改成普选,即废除由选举团进行的第二轮选举,可是这种情况近期内不太可能发生。修订《宪法》需要极大的政治意愿;美国建国220多年来只通过了27条修正案。而且这种变化受到人口较少的州(在选举团制度下它们有较大的影响力)、两党制的支持者以及聯邦制的支持者的抵制。
不论选举团有何利弊,它至少提供了决断性。历史上,没有候选人获得选举团多数票因而由众议院选出总统 的情况只出现过两次。上一次是发生在1824年。
Read more: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/chinese/article/2012/08/20120816134736.html#ixzz24owHlzfm
U.S. Elections: Electoral College
25 June 2012
Download this pamphlet at right.
Electoral and Popular Votes
More than 100 million voters will likely cast ballots in nationwide U.S. elections on November 6, 2012. But only 538 men and women will elect the next president of the United States, and those elections will take place in 50 state capitals and in Washington, D.C., on December 17.
This indirect election system, called the Electoral College and devised in 1787 by the framers of the Constitution, reflects the federal governing system of allocating powers to a national government representing not only the people but also the states.
The Electoral College requires a presidential candidate to have national stature as well as broad appeal to different regions. “One consequence of the Electoral College has been to make it hard for third parties, regional factions, or lesser figures to gain the presidency,” said John C. Fortier, author of After the People Vote.
The presidential electors nearly always vote the same way in December as the voters in their state did in November. The Electoral College winner nearly always captures the most popular votes nationwide. But because all but two states have winner-take-all rules, occasionally the Electoral College winner trails another candidate in nationwide popular votes, as happened in 2000.
An election strategy flows from the Electoral College system. Presidential candidates pay less attention to reliably Democratic and Republican states in the campaign. Instead they focus workers and money on a relatively few narrowly divided states — Florida and Ohio are well-known examples — that decide the elections.
The Constitution
In 1787 the framers of the U.S. Constitution achieved a grand compromise creating a two-chamber Congress with a House of Representatives, where the number of each state's seats is based on population, and a Senate, where each state gets two seats.
Then the framers sought to ensure that the president would have sufficient powers and stature to be independent of Congress. The framers believed in a separation of powers.
Similarly, the framers did not allow the states to choose the president directly. Instead, they devised a system — the Electoral College — in which electors would be appointed from each state. The state legislatures would decide how the electors were chosen; by the 1830s all electors were chosen by popular election.
One other feature of the electors bears noting. The electors from each state meet to cast their votes for president, but all the state electors never meet together as one single national body.
Each state is allocated a number of electors equal to the sum of its two U.S. senators and the number of its U.S. representatives, which is based on a population census conducted every 10 years. In 2012, the populous state of California has 55 electors while states such as Alaska and Delaware each have three.
The Electoral College now comprises 538 electors, one for each of the 435 members of the House of Representatives and the 100 senators plus three for the national capital, Washington, D.C. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the president and vice president.
Two-Party System
The framers did not conceive of a political party system and certainly did not design the Electoral College to promote one. But over time, the Electoral College has strengthened the two-party system of Democrats and Republicans.
First, states moved to make their elections winner-take-all. In a winner-take-all system, a party must be strong enough to win the popular vote in a state, not just get a noticeable percentage.
Second, the Electoral College makes it necessary for parties to win states in multiple regions of the country. A candidate could not gain a majority by winning just the South or the Northeast. And in fact, almost every recent successful presidential candidate has won a majority of the states.
In the event of an Electoral College tie, under the 12th Amendment to the Constitution the House of Representatives would select the president. Each state delegation would have one vote to choose from the three candidates who received the greatest number of electoral votes.
A lot of Americans want to change the election of the president to direct popular vote, but no such change is imminent. Amending the Constitution requires enormous political will; only 27 amendments have passed in more than 220 years. And such change faces resistance from small states (which have disproportionate representation in the Electoral College), from supporters of a two-party system, and from supporters of a federal system of government.
Whatever its merits, the Electoral College at least offers decisiveness. The House of Representatives has had to decide only two presidential elections because no candidate achieved an Electoral College majority. It last happened in 1824.
Read more: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/pamphlet/2012/06/201206187579.html#ixzz24owNANWD