VOA标准英语2012 How America Elects - Winning Party's Nomination Takes Winning Delegates

How America Elects - Winning Party's Nomination¹ Takes Winning Delegates

To be on the November presidential election ballot², candidates have to win their party's nomination. And that decision is made by party delegates.

When primary or caucus³ voters make their choice, they are actually voting for convention delegates pledged to that candidate. The contender who has the most delegate votes at their party's presidential convention wins the nomination. 

When the 2012 Republican National Convention convenes⁴ in Tampa, Florida, on August 27, a total of 2,286 delegates will be there. It will take 1,144 delegates for a candidate to be the Republican nominee⁵ on the November election ballot. 

The 2012 Democratic National Convention opens September 3 in Charlotte, North Carolina, where there will be 5,554 delegates. While it will take 2,778 delegates to nominate President Barack Obama for a second term, he is running unopposed within his own party. 

The two parties have different formulas for apportioning⁶ and committing delegates to presidential candidates. The Democratic Party's process is explained by Democratic National Committee press secretary Melanie Roussell.

"The state [Democratic] party either has a government-run primary, a party-run primary, or a caucus to determine how many delegates will be allocated⁷ from [to] that state, for a particular candidate at that convention," she said. 

Roussell says that in all states, delegates are awarded to candidates proportionally. If someone gets 35 percent of the vote in a state's primary or caucus, that candidate will get 35 percent of the state’s delegates. 

Those delegates are pledged to vote for that candidate's nomination at the party convention. 

But not all of the 5,554 delegates at the Democratic Convention are locked in to specific candidates. There are 727 delegates, sometimes called "super-delegates," who are state and national Democratic officials such as governors, senators, and House members. These 727 delegates can support any candidate they choose.

In the Republican Party, some states award delegates on a proportional basis as do the Democrats⁸. But other states have a "winner-take-all" basis. It's tied to the calendar, says Republican National Committee communications director Sean Spicer.

"So what we did is that we came up with a system that basically said 'If you [a particular state] go [hold a primary or caucus] prior to, or within the month of March - any time before April 1 - you must be a proportional state," he said. "That ensured that you couldn't just rack up a couple quick wins, and run away with the nomination."

Delegates are pledged to specific candidates on the first roll call vote at the convention. But if one candidate does not lock in the nomination on the first vote, a convention may become "brokered," where factions⁹ both compete and combine to produce a presidential nominee. But, this has not happened since 1952.

1 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。

2 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

3 caucus   

n.秘密会议；干部会议；v.（参加）干部开会议

参考例句：

• This multi-staged caucus takes several months.这个多级会议常常历时好几个月。
• It kept the Democratic caucus from fragmenting.它也使得民主党的核心小组避免了土崩瓦解的危险。

4 convenes   

召开( convene的第三人称单数 )； 召集； （为正式会议而）聚集； 集合

参考例句：

• The Premier convenes and presides over the executive meetings and plenary meetings of the State Council. 总理召集和主持国务院常务会议和国务院全体会议。 来自汉英非文学 - 中国宪法
• Chinese woman tenth the National People Congress convenes grandly today in Beijing. 中国妇女第十次全国代表大会今天在北京隆重召开。

5 nominee   

n.被提名者；被任命者；被推荐者

参考例句：

• His nominee for vice president was elected only after a second ballot.他提名的副总统在两轮投票后才当选。
• Mr.Francisco is standing as the official nominee for the post of District Secretary.弗朗西斯科先生是行政书记职位的正式提名人。

6 apportioning   

vt.分摊，分配（apportion的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• There is still no law apportioning Iraq's oil resources. 关于一如何分配石油还是没有法律出台。 来自互联网
• The act or a round of apportioning or distributing. 分布或散布或分配的行为。 来自互联网

7 allocated   

adj. 分配的 动词allocate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The Ford Foundation allocated millions of dollars for cancer research. 福特基金会拨款数百万美元用于癌症研究。
• More funds will now be allocated to charitable organizations. 现在会拨更多的资金给慈善组织。

8 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 factions   

组织中的小派别，派系( faction的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The gens also lives on in the "factions." 氏族此外还继续存在于“factions〔“帮”〕中。 来自英汉非文学 - 家庭、私有制和国家的起源
• rival factions within the administration 政府中的对立派别