the Electoral College

大統領選の行方が気になります。今夜もNHKがこの関連の番組をやるようです。

the Electoral Collegeは知っていると思いますが、大学にあらず。「選挙人団」のことです。大統領選は間接選挙であり、直接選ぶことができるのは選挙人（electors）たちです。

選挙人は、州ごとに定員（州が選出できる上下両議員の数と同じ）があり、この集団がthe Electoral Collegeと呼ばれています。この制度では、日本の選挙制度と同じく格差が生じてしまい、その是正が叫ばれているものの現行のまま推移しているようです。（UG）

Sandy leaves election officials scrambling

(CNN) -- When Sandy slammed into the East Coast on Monday, it set into motion a tight timeline for election officials: one week to ensure that voters in states from Virginia to New Hampshire would be able cast their ballots on Election Day.

But power outages, flooding and snow left in the storm's wake could make that impossible for voters in some of the hardest-hit states.

Some fire stations, schools, community centers and other venues that serve as polling places will have to be cleaned up if they were flooded or damaged.

Other polling spots may need to be relocated if they are too damaged to be used. Voting machines may have to be dropped off at some polling places with election officials gambling that power will be restored there by Tuesday.

Many electronic voting machines -- used now by two out of every five counties nationwide, according to the Voting Technology Project -- often require consistent power to work for the long hours they are needed on Election Day, even though some have battery power.

If electricity remains out in some areas next Tuesday, those areas may have to scramble to find alternatives, including paper ballots.

It is unlikely voters in the hardest hit states will be given an extension if they cannot access polls, despite damage from the storm.

Only Congress can change Election Day, according to an 1845 law. If it opts to alter the timetable -- something never previously done -- every state would have to be included.

The same law also says that if a state "shall fail to make a choice" on Election Day, then electors to the Electoral College may be appointed on a "subsequent day" as determined by state law.

As state and county election officials throughout the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast work to coordinate logistics at polling stations scattered across Delaware, New Jersey, New York and

Pennsylvania, it is still unknown whether all voters in the states hardest hit by Sandy will have the opportunity to cast their ballots on Election Day.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/31/politics/sandy-voting-election-day/index.html?hpt=hp_t3