美国有线新闻 CNN 美国中期选举在即 两党争夺国会控制权（在线收听）

We are a little more than one week from Halloween, one month from Thanksgiving, two months from Christmas and exactly two weeks from a major electoral event coming this Fall, the U.S. mid-term elections.

Presidential terms last four years in America. Halfway through those terms are the mid-terms. In addition to state and local elections, the mid-terms help determine the make-up of Congress and that can have an impact on how effective the President is in getting passage of the laws he supports.

The House of Representatives has 435 voting members. They serve two year terms so all of these seats are up for election on Tuesday, November 6th.

The Senate has 100 voting members. They serve six year terms so roughly a third of these seats are up for election. The President is a Republican.

The House and Senate are controlled by Republican majorities and Republicans want to keep that control. Democrats want to flip or win back control of those chambers of Congress. Whether they'll actually do that is unknown. No matter who the President is, lawmakers in the same political party tend to lose seats in the mid-terms.

And many political analysts say there's a strong chance this year that Democrats will take control of the House from Republicans. But they say there's not a strong chance that the Senate will lose it's Republican control because these mid-terms most of the Senate seats that are up for election are currently held by Democrats. What are the issues in the minds of voters? There are a lot. Immigration, drug addiction, welfare reform, gun violence, taxes, the environment, healthcare, trade deals, terrorism, they all f?actor in. How Americans feel about the President and his policies also factors in. How they'll vote and who will vote are things we'll know next month.