Chinglish by Michael Chugani

2012-11-06

Americans will go to the polls today. The expression “go to the polls” means to vote in an election. You can also say: American voters will cast their ballots today. This also means they will vote today. Hong Kong voters went to the polls (or cast their ballots) on September 9 to elect members of the Legislative Council. But they could not cast their ballots on March 25 to elect the chief executive because only 1,200 members of the Election Committee were allowed to vote. Hong Kong does not have universal suffrage for The Chief Executive election but Beijing has promised universal suffrage starting in 2017. The expression universal suffrage means the right of all adults to vote in an election.

        T he word cast has several meanings. To cast a stone means to throw a stone. The past tense is also cast. Many Hong Kong people wrongly say “casted”. In addition to voting for a president, Americans will also cast their ballots for members of the US Congress and for politicians in their own states. Many people think the president is directly elected by the people but the president is elected by an electoral college of 538 electors. A candidate must win at least 270 of the 538 votes to become president.

        The states share the 538 votes depending on how many members they have in the US Congress, which is determined by the size of their populations. California has the largest population and so has 55 members of Congress. This means it also has 55 electoral college votes. The candidate who wins the majority of votes cast by the people of a state will also get all the electoral college votes of that state. For example, if Barack Obama wins the majority of votes cast by the people of California he will get California's 55 electoral college votes. The east and west coast states usually support a Democrat candidate while states in the south and the middle of the country usually support a Republican. A few states, such as Ohio, are known as "swing" states. No one knows for sure if they will swing towards (support) Obama or Republican Mitt Romney.

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        美國人今天會去投票（go to the polls）。習語 “go to the polls” 即是在選舉中投票，你也可以說成：美國選民今天會去cast their ballots。香港選民在剛過去的九月九日，就去了投票（went to the polls或cast their ballots）選立法會議員。但他們在三月二十五日那天，卻不能投票（cast their ballots）選特首，因為只有選舉委員會那一千二百人個成員才能投票。香港沒有特首普選（universal suffrage），但北京承諾二○一七年便會有普選（universal suffrage）。Universal suffrage意即所有成年人，在選舉中都有投票權。

        Cast這個字有多重意思，To cast a stone即投擲石頭。它的過去式也是cast，但許多香港人錯誤地說成 “casted”。除了選總統，美國人也可以投票選美國國會議員和自己州份的參政者。許多人以為總統是由人民直接選出，但其實是總統是由五百三十八個選舉人團選出。一個候選人必須在這五百三十八票中，贏得至少二百七十票才能當選總統。

        這五百三十八票是按州份於美國國會所有的議員數目攤分，議員數目則取決於州份的人口。加州有最多人口，所以在國會有五十五位議員，也即是說，它有五十五張選舉人票。候選人若贏得該州份的人所投（cast）的選舉人票的大多數，那他就能全得該州的所有選舉人票。例如，若奧巴馬取得加州選民所投（cast）選票的過半數，那麼他便可以全取加州的五十五張選舉人票。東岸和西岸的州通常會支持民主黨候選人，而南部和中部的州則通常會支持共和黨人。有些州，例如俄亥俄州，被認為是「游離」州（"swing" states）。沒有人可以確切肯定，他們到底會搖擺（swing）往奧巴馬，抑或共和黨人米特羅姆尼的一邊。mickchug@gmail.com

        中譯:七刻

        Michael Chugani 褚簡寧