Name: 輕鬆說英語：如何談論總統選舉 (Speaking English Made Easy: How To Talk About Presidential Elections)
Uploaded: 2025-08-18T17:48:33.000Z
Duration: 6 min 53 s

With the election around the corner, I thought I would make a video for my students around the world to help them understand how the presidential election works in the United States.

大選在即，我想為世界各地的學生製作一段視頻，幫助他們瞭解美國的總統選舉是如何進行的。

I'm Rachel and I've been teaching the American accent and English as a second language here on YouTube for over 15 years.

我是瑞秋，在 YouTube 上教授美國口音和英語作為第二語言已有 15 年之久。

Check out rachelsenglish.com slash free to get my free course on mastering the American accent.

請訪問 rachelsenglish.com slash free，免費獲取我的掌握美式口音課程。

In the United States, we use an electoral college system.

在美國，我們採用選舉團制度。

So each state is given a certain number of electoral college votes.

是以，每個州都有一定數量的選舉人團選票。

So underneath each state abbreviation, you'll see the number of electoral college votes that state has.

是以，在每個州的縮寫下面，你會看到該州擁有的選舉人團票數。

現在，讓我們以佛羅里達州為例。

This is a state where I was born and raised and I did vote on my 18th birthday.

這是我土生土長的一個州，我在 18 歲生日那天參加了投票。

This year the election is on my birthday and when I turned 18, there was a presidential election on my birthday.

今年的選舉是在我生日那天，而我 18 歲那年，我生日那天也舉行了總統選舉。

So I got to vote for the president on my birthday.

所以，我可以在生日那天為總統投票。

When you're 18, that's when you become eligible to vote in the United States.

當你年滿 18 歲時，你就擁有了在美國投票的資格。

So let's take the state of Florida for example.

So out of all of the people in Florida, they're going to cast their votes for the Republican nominee or the Democratic nominee or a third party and it doesn't matter how many votes anyone gets outside of the winning candidate.

是以，在佛羅里達州的所有民眾中，他們將把選票投給共和黨提名人、民主黨提名人或第三黨，而在獲勝候選人之外，任何人獲得多少選票並不重要。

So even if there's a candidate there that wins by just one total vote, the state of Florida, all 30 of those votes go towards that one winning candidate.

是以，即使佛羅里達州的候選人僅以一票之差獲勝，這30張選票也將全部投給獲勝的候選人。

So in other words, we don't use a popular vote in the United States.

是以，換句話說，在美國，我們不使用民眾投票。

It's not one vote cast equals one vote for that candidate.

並不是投一票就等於給該候選人投一票。

Whichever candidate wins that state wins all the electoral college votes.

無論哪位候選人贏得該州，都將贏得選舉人團的所有選票。

Then you add up the electoral college votes and whoever gets to 270 wins.

然後將選舉人團的票數相加，誰達到 270 票，誰就獲勝。

Now I should say there are a few states that split their electoral college votes.

現在我應該說，有幾個州的選舉人團選票是分開的。

那就是緬因州和內布拉斯加州。

All the other 48 states, it's all or nothing.

在其他 48 個州，要麼全有，要麼全無。

The winner gets everything and second place, even if they got almost as many votes, they get nothing.

冠軍可以得到一切，而第二名，即使他們得到了幾乎同樣多的選票，也什麼都得不到。

This map is colored according to projected winner of those votes.

本地圖根據這些選票的預計獲勝者著色。

So if it's a very dark blue, that means it's very likely that the Democrat will win that state.

是以，如果是深藍色，就意味著民主黨很有可能贏得該州。

If it's a lighter blue, then it's less likely.

如果是淺藍色，則可能性較小。

If it's a dark red, then it's very likely that the Republican candidate, in this case Donald Trump, will win the state.

如果是暗紅色，那麼共和黨候選人，即唐納德-特朗普，很有可能贏得該州。

And the lighter the color, the less likely it is.

And then we have these tan states and those are states where it's a toss up.

然後我們還有這些棕褐色的州，這些州的情況就比較複雜了。

現在判斷誰會獲勝還為時過早。

Will it be Donald Trump or will it be Kamala Harris?

是唐納德-特朗普還是卡馬拉-哈里斯？

Idaho has 1,014,383 registered voters and they get four votes in the electoral college.

愛達荷州有 1,014,383 名登記選民，在選舉人團中有四票。

Pennsylvania, on the other hand, has 8,838,100 registered voters and 19 electoral college votes.

賓夕法尼亞州則擁有 883.81 萬名登記選民和 19 張選舉人團選票。

So if you do the math, one electoral college vote in Idaho is made by 253,595 people voting.

是以，如果你計算一下，愛達荷州的一張選舉人團選票是由 253,595 人投票產生的。

One in Pennsylvania is equal to 465,163 people voting.

賓夕法尼亞州的 1 票相當於 465 163 人投票。

In other words, in Pennsylvania, many more people are represented by one vote in the electoral college.

換句話說，在賓夕法尼亞州，選舉人團的一票代表了更多的人。

In other words, my vote, my voice is diluted.

換句話說，我的投票權、發言權被稀釋了。

It's less loud because I have to join with 400,000 other people to make one vote.

聲音小是因為我必須和其他 40 萬人一起投一票。

Whereas in Idaho, they can join with almost half as many people to make their vote.

而在愛達荷州，他們可以與近一半的人一起投票。

So basically, my vote counts less because my vote is a smaller fraction of an electoral college vote than in other states.

是以，基本上，我的選票就不那麼重要了，因為與其他州相比，我的選票在選舉人團選票中所佔比例較小。

And there are probably no states where it's exactly even.

可能沒有哪個州是完全持平的。

So yeah, I wish we just had a popular vote in the United States, but we don't.

所以，是的，我希望美國有民眾投票，但我們沒有。

Let's look at how that's played out in the last few elections.

讓我們看看最近幾次選舉的情況。

This is the map showing the electoral college wins of each candidate in the 2016 election when Donald Trump won.

這是顯示 2016 年大選中唐納德-特朗普獲勝時各候選人贏得選舉人團席位的地圖。

You can see he easily got to 270 votes by getting all of the electoral college votes for all of these red states.

您可以看到，通過獲得所有這些紅州的所有選舉人團選票，他輕鬆獲得了 270 張選票。

But if you look at the popular vote, you can see that Donald Trump got 62 million and Hillary Clinton got 65 million.

但如果你看一下普選結果，就會發現唐納德-特朗普獲得了6200萬張選票，而希拉里-克林頓獲得了6500萬張選票。

But because of the way that the electoral map works, the more people that voted for her were in states where their vote was a little bit weaker.

但由於選舉地圖的作用，更多投票給她的人是在選票稍弱的州。

So Donald Trump ended up winning the election.

是以，唐納德-特朗普最終贏得了大選。

This has only happened twice in the history of the United States, but it has happened more recently.

這種情況在美國曆史上只發生過兩次，但最近發生得更多一些。

It happened in 2016 and it happened in 2000.

它發生在 2016 年，也發生在 2000 年。

So to me, that's one issue with the electoral college.

所以對我來說，這就是選舉人團的一個問題。

Another issue that I feel like the electoral college makes apparent is that honestly, I think cheating and fraud becomes more of a problem.

我覺得選舉團顯而易見的另一個問題是，老實說，我認為作弊和舞弊問題變得更加嚴重。

You might only have to turn one state, one close battleground swing state, in order to make an election different.

你可能只需要改變一個州，一個接近戰場的搖擺州，就能讓選舉變得不同。

Let's compare the map from the 2016 election to the 2020 election.

讓我們比較一下 2016 年大選和 2020 年大選的地圖。

They changed from voting Republican in 2016 to voting Democrat in 2020.

他們從 2016 年投票給共和黨變為 2020 年投票給民主黨。

賓夕法尼亞州從紅色變為藍色。

If you're confused about this state here and why it doesn't have a label, it's actually just part of Michigan.

如果您對這個州感到困惑，為什麼它沒有標籤，其實它只是密歇根州的一部分。

On election night, I always think it's exciting to watch the returns as they come in.

在選舉之夜，我一直認為觀看選舉結果是一件令人興奮的事情。

The returns would be all of the counted votes and it goes county by county.

選舉結果將是所有計票結果，並逐縣進行統計。

So for example, in Alachua County in Florida, where I grew up, they may report their votes before a different county has finished counting.

例如，在我生長的佛羅里達州阿拉瓜縣，他們可能會在另一個縣完成計票之前報告自己的選票。

And as soon as enough of the votes are in to make a call, the network that you're watching will call the state and you'll see all of those electoral college votes go in the column of that candidate.

一旦有足夠的選票，你正在收看的電視網就會給該州打電話，你就會看到選舉人團的所有選票都投到了該候選人一欄。

Living in Pennsylvania, voting in Pennsylvania, I'm very interested to see how this goes.

我住在賓夕法尼亞州，在賓夕法尼亞州投票，我很想知道事情會如何發展。

後來，我搬到印第安納州上大學。

Then I moved to Massachusetts for graduate school.

後來，我搬到馬薩諸塞州讀研究所學生。

Then New York City and now I'm in Pennsylvania.

然後是紐約市，現在我在賓夕法尼亞州。

所以，你可以看到我在紅色州生活過。

I've lived in blue states and now I'm in a swing state.

我曾在藍州生活過，現在我在一個搖擺州。

So those are the basics of how the electoral college works and how the electoral college is different from a popular vote and how a person can actually win the popular vote but not win the presidency in the United States of America.

以上就是關於選舉人團如何運作、選舉人團與普選有何不同以及一個人如何贏得普選卻無法贏得美國總統職位的基本知識。

I'll be casting my vote on my birthday, November 5th.

我將在 11 月 5 日生日那天投票。

Keep your learning going now with this video and don't forget to subscribe with notifications on.

現在就通過這段視頻繼續學習，別忘了打開通知訂閱。

That's it and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.

就是這樣，非常感謝你使用瑞秋的英語。