[ti:Electoral College Meets on Monday to Choose US President+++选举人周一投票选出美国总统] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.00]Most voters in the United States marked their ballots [00:05.40]in the presidential election on November 8. [00:10.08]But they did not vote directly for a candidate. [00:15.46]Instead, they chose what the Constitution calls electors. [00:21.89]On December 19, 538 electors will meet at statehouses across the country. [00:33.14]They will mark their own ballots to officially choose the 45th president of the United States. [00:42.76]The electors are members of the Electoral College. [00:47.59]The meeting of the electors usually receives little attention. [00:53.52]But this year, opponents of President-elect Donald Trump [00:59.63]have tried to urge the Electoral College to deny him the presidency. [01:06.87]In the late 1700s, some founders of the United States [01:13.97]wanted members of Congress to be able to choose the president. [01:20.11]They did not trust that voters would always make a good choice. [01:26.93]Others wanted voters to directly decide. [01:32.65]So, as a compromise, the founders created a system they called the Electoral College. [01:42.53]Members meet after the election to formally choose the president. [01:50.10]Electors normally mark their ballots for the candidate [01:55.77]who won the popular vote in their state. [02:00.03]But the system does permit electors to vote for someone else. [02:07.24]The number of electors for each state is equal to its members of Congress. [02:15.86]This means states with bigger populations have more electors and states with lower populations have fewer. [02:28.11]The Electoral College system can create a situation in which a candidate wins more popular votes nationwide, but still loses the election. [02:43.31]Before the 2016 election, that had happened only four times in American history. [02:53.74]This November, 65.7 million people voted for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. [03:05.46]Donald Trump received 62.9 million votes. [03:13.07]But Trump won the presidency because he won the most electoral votes. [03:20.77]If Trump receives all of the electoral votes on Monday from the states [03:28.77]where he won the popular vote, he will have 306. [03:35.66]The winning candidate must have at least 270 electoral votes. [03:42.30]That is the majority of the 538 total votes. [03:48.62]Although Hillary Clinton won more votes nationally, [03:53.43]she only won 232 electoral votes. [03:59.09]For the results of the election to change, [04:04.14]37 Republican electors would have to vote against their states' voters and choose Clinton instead of Trump. [04:14.79]That would make them "faithless electors." [04:19.23]Experts say that is unlikely to happen. [04:23.31]Only one Republican elector has publicly said he will not vote for Trump. [04:33.18]That elector is Christopher Suprun. [04:38.15]He lives in Dallas, Texas. [04:41.15]He told VOA that he believes Trump is not qualified to be president. [04:49.82]He is also worried that Trump will be more loyal to his many businesses than to the country. [05:00.30]Lawrence Lessig is a professor of constitutional law at Harvard University. [05:07.93]Earlier this week, he said, as many as 20 Republican electors were considering not voting for Trump. [05:19.42]But that could not be confirmed. [05:23.34]There is no federal law that requires the electors [05:28.93]to vote for the candidate who received the most votes in their state. [05:35.35]But 29 states and the District of Columbia have laws that control how electors vote. [05:44.89]However, many constitutional lawyers do not believe those laws can be enforced. [05:54.03]Larry Tribe is also a professor at Harvard Law School. [06:00.82]He says it is not likely that Trump will lose in the Electoral College. [06:08.40]But he says electors, in his words, "have a responsibility to the country [06:16.47]and the Constitution, in extreme enough situations. [06:21.64]And I think this is a pretty extreme situation." [06:27.36]A group that calls itself the Hamilton Electors is working to urge electors not to vote for Trump. [06:37.87]The group is named for Alexander Hamilton, one of the founders of the United States. [06:46.25]He was also one of the main founders of the Electoral College. [06:51.89]The group notes that the founders designed the system [06:57.61]to keep someone unfit for the presidency from taking office. [07:04.72]The group wrote on its website that it honors "Alexander Hamilton's vision that the Electoral College should, [07:16.45]when necessary, act as a Constitutional fail-safe against those lacking the qualifications from becoming president." [07:28.88]Others believe electors should change their votes because of recent intelligence reports. [07:38.26]They suggest that the Russian government stole information from computers of some Democratic Party officials. [07:50.09]The reports say the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [07:55.53]believes Russia did so to help Trump win the election. [08:01.51]On Friday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said it supported the CIA's findings. [08:10.00]Trump has dismissed the CIA report. [08:15.62]He says there is no evidence that Russia was involved in the hacking. [08:22.96]But a growing number of electors are worried [08:27.58]that Russia did try to help Trump win. [08:31.97]At least 67 electors have asked for information from the intelligence community [08:40.51]about the suspected Russian activities before they vote on Monday. [08:47.75]All but one of those electors are Democrats. [08:53.70]Experts say this shows that the campaign to convince Republican electors not to vote for Trump has failed. [09:05.61]I'm Caty Weaver. [09:07.78]And I'm Ashley Thompson. [09:09.77]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM