AS IT IS 2016-11-26 Calls for US Vote Recount Grow, but Trump’s Win Likely Will Stand

AS IT IS 2016-11-26 Calls for US Vote Recount Grow, but Trump¹’s Win Likely Will Stand

Calls for a recount of ballots² in the American presidential election grew louder this week as Hillary Clinton increased her lead in the popular vote.

News media say Clinton, the candidate of the Democratic Party, lost the election to businessman Donald Trump, the Republican candidate. They say he will win more electoral votes than the former Secretary of State.

Trump is busy forming a new government. Political experts say a vote recount is unlikely to keep him from being sworn-in as president on January 20th, 2017.

Clinton won the popular vote – winning more than 2 million more votes than Trump, according to the Cook Political Report.

But in the United States, the candidate who wins the most votes does not always win the presidency⁴. If Trump wins, as appears likely, he would be the fifth person to become president after losing the popular vote.

Electoral College Decides

The 538-member Electoral College decides the presidential election, not the popular vote. Electoral College members are chosen state-by-state -- based on which candidates win the most votes in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

As of this week, Trump has 306 Electoral College votes, while Clinton has 232. Trump’s number had been 290 until Michigan election officials announced on Friday that he won the state by 10,704 votes.

That was the closest presidential election in Michigan’s history. More than 4.7 million people there marked ballots in the November 8 vote.

Experts Speak to Clinton Campaign

Last week, Clinton campaign head John Podesta spoke⁵ with lawyers and computer scientists who urged him to ask for a recount in three states: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

They said it is possible that voting machines could have been attacked to affect the results. Trump’s lead in the three states was 1.2 percent, according to The New York Times newspaper.

If Clinton, instead of Trump, won those three states, she would end up with 274 Electoral College votes, enough to win the presidency.

The experts, mentioned in a New York Magazine story, said their findings show Clinton’s support dropped seven points in areas that used electronic voting machines. Those machines, the experts said, are more open to hacking⁷.

So far, the Clinton campaign has not reacted to calls for a vote recount. But another presidential candidate, Jill Stein, began raising money required to finance recounts in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

As of Friday, she had raised $5 million. That is enough, the Stein campaign said, to start recounts in all three states.

Stein, the Green Party candidate, won a little more than one percent of the popular vote. A statement on her website said the recount is not meant to help Clinton, whom Stein criticized during the election. It is “about protecting our democracy,” the Stein campaign said.

Still, it is very unlikely her recount efforts will keep Trump from winning the presidency, according to Nate Silver, a political expert. He operates the website FiveThirtyEight.

Silver told VOA it is unlikely unlawful activities affected⁸ the election results. He said the differences between districts using electronic voting machines in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin could be explained by race and education levels. He said they are the two factors that most closely predicted voting in the 2016 presidential election.

Two Democratic Electoral Collect Members Say Vote Conscience

The 538 members of the Electoral College are set to officially choose the next president on December 19.

Two Democratic members of the Electoral College called on members to vote their conscience, even if that means going against the wishes of voters in the states they represent. They said that Trump lacks the skills necessary to serve as president.

But so far, there are no signs enough Electoral College members will change their votes to keep Trump from winning.

Before Election Day, Clinton, who had been expected to win, promised to accept the election results. Trump, who had said he thought cheating might affect the results, refused to make such a promise.

“We are a country based on laws, and we’ve had hot, contested elections going back to the very beginning,” Clinton said, before the voting. “But one of our hallmarks has always been that we accept the outcomes of our election.”

The last person to lose the popular vote but win the presidential election was Republican George W. Bush in 2000. He lost to Democrat³ Al Gore⁹ that year by 547,000 votes.

Words in This Story

mention - v. to talk about, write about, or refer to

hack⁶ - v. to secretly get access to the files on a computer or network in order to get information, cause damage or change results

conscience - n. the part of the mind that makes you aware of your actions as being either morally right or wrong

contest - v. to challenge

hallmark - n. an important tradition

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 ballots   

n.投票表决( ballot的名词复数 )；选举；选票；投票总数v.（使）投票表决( ballot的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• They're counting the ballots. 他们正在计算选票。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The news of rigged ballots has rubbed off much of the shine of their election victory. 他们操纵选票的消息使他们在选举中获得的胜利大为减色。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

4 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 hack   

n.劈，砍，出租马车；v.劈，砍，干咳

参考例句：

• He made a hack at the log.他朝圆木上砍了一下。
• Early settlers had to hack out a clearing in the forest where they could grow crops.早期移民不得不在森林里劈出空地种庄稼。

7 hacking   

n.非法访问计算机系统和数据库的活动

参考例句：

• The patient with emphysema is hacking all day. 这个肺气肿病人整天不断地干咳。
• We undertook the task of hacking our way through the jungle. 我们负责在丛林中开路。

8 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

9 gore   

n.凝血，血污；v.（动物）用角撞伤，用牙刺破；缝以补裆；顶

参考例句：

• The fox lay dying in a pool of gore.狐狸倒在血泊中奄奄一息。
• Carruthers had been gored by a rhinoceros.卡拉瑟斯被犀牛顶伤了。