THIS IS AMERICA - Election of 2004

THIS IS AMERICA - Election of 2004
By

Broadcast: Monday, November 08, 2004

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VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember. Coming up ... results from the state and national elections of two thousand four.

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VOICE ONE:

That was Senator John Kerry last Wednesday, telling his supporters that he had lost the presidential election.

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President George W. Bush begins his second and final term January twentieth. But first there is the Electoral College tradition. Electors in each state have to meet next month to make the vote official.

VOICE TWO:

 
President Bush and his wife, Laura, at a victory celebration in Washington.
More than fifty-nine million people voted for President Bush and Vice¹ President Dick Cheney. That was fifty-one percent. And that was three and one-half million more than voted for John Kerry and his vice presidential candidate, Senator John Edwards. The Democrats³ had forty-eight percent.

George Walker Bush is America's forty-third president. But he is the first in sixteen years to win a majority of the popular vote. The last one was his father, in nineteen eighty-eight.

VOICE ONE:

On colored maps on election-night television, red states meant Republican victories. Blue states meant Democratic victories. In the end, the map looked very much like the map in the two thousand election.

  
Senator Kerry and his wife, Teresa, at his concession⁴ speech in Boston

 
Mister Kerry won all three states on the West Coast -- California, Oregon and Washington state -- as well as Hawaii. He also won the Northeast including New Hampshire, which last time voted for Mister Bush. And Mister Kerry won states in the upper Midwest including Minnesota and Wisconsin. But most of the country was red.

The election was decided⁵ when a victory for Mister Bush became clear in Ohio, a large state in the Midwest. There was a long night of waiting. But this election was not as close as many people had expected.

Four years ago, when Mister Bush faced Al Gore⁶, Americans had to wait more than a month to know their president.

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VOICE TWO:

Republicans also increased their strength in Congress in the general elections last Tuesday. Most notably⁷, former Congressman⁸ John Thune defeated Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota. Mister Daschle is the Democratic minority leader in the Senate. Fifty years have passed since a Senate leader of either party was voted out of office.

Republicans gained a majority in both houses ten years ago. In the next Congress, they will control fifty-five of the one hundred seats in the Senate. They will control more than two hundred thirty of the four hundred thirty-five seats in the House of Representatives.

VOICE ONE:

Democrats did score a few victories. A new star in the party, Illinois state Senator Barack Obama, was easily elected to the United States Senate.

  
Barack Obama  
Mister Obama gave a major speech this summer at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. He is the son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from the United States.

Only two other African Americans have been elected to the Senate since the rebuilding after the Civil War in the eighteen-sixties.

VOICE TWO:

In Colorado, Democrat² Ken¹⁰ Salazar, the state attorney general, defeated Republican businessman Pete Coors in a race for the United States Senate. But in Florida, Republican Mel Martinez defeated Democrat Betty Castor, a former state education chief, to replace retiring Senator Bob Graham. Mister Martinez was born in Cuba. He served President Bush as housing secretary.

Eleven states had to elect governors last week. Here, voters were about as likely to choose Democrats as Republicans.

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VOICE ONE:

 
Voters in Ohio line up to cast their ballots¹²
On the morning of Election Day, long lines formed at schools, community centers and other voting places. And this was not just in the so-called battleground states. Democrats and Republicans had both signed up millions of new voters, many of them young.

Curtis Gans is director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate¹³, a research group. He says about one hundred twenty million Americans voted. By his estimate, the turnout was the highest since nineteen sixty-eight, at almost sixty percent of possible voters.

Most political experts had suggested that higher numbers of voters would be better for John Kerry. This was not the case.

VOICE TWO:

 
Graphic¹⁴ Image
We get some sense of who voted from the questioning of voters for exit polls. Fifty-four percent were women. Women have outnumbered men in voting for president for the past twenty years. More women chose Senator Kerry. But women were more likely to choose President Bush as four years ago.

Thirty-seven percent of voters said they were Democrats. Thirty-seven percent said they were Republicans. Independents were divided almost evenly between Senator Kerry and President Bush.

Election-day reports said that young people represented the same share of voters as four years ago. But University of Maryland researchers disputed the idea that young voters stayed away. They noted¹⁵ that all age groups increased their voting.

The researchers say the percentage of young people who voted reached about half for the first time in years. In fact, they were the only age group strongly for the Democrats.

VOICE ONE:

Even if not as many young voters showed up as some people had hoped, conservative white Christians¹⁶ did show up. The Republican Party targeted this base of support throughout the campaign. Exit polls found that they made up about one-fourth of all voters. Many experts believe they were the deciding voice.

Terrorism and the economy were major issues to voters. But a national exit poll found that even more people said they cared most about "moral values." These include issues like same-sex marriage and the ending of unwanted pregnancies¹⁷.

VOICE TWO:

Elections in the United States are organized by local officials. They choose the voting equipment and ballot¹¹ designs. Four years ago people had many problems voting, especially in Florida.

This year the major parties sent thousands of lawyers to voting places to prepare for anything. By the end of Election Day, however, most of the problems seemed minor⁹.

VOICE ONE:

Spending for federal campaigns this year reached an estimated four thousand million dollars. The Center for Responsive Politics says this is a thirty percent increase from four years ago. The research group says more than one thousand million dollars was spent in the presidential race.

The elections were the first under a new political finance law, known as the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. This law bans unlimited¹⁸ money, usually from businesses or unions, in federal campaigns. Instead, the law increases the limit on how much individuals can give in direct support of candidates.

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VOICE TWO:

Americans also had many state issues to decide. Eleven states asked voters if marriage should be defined as being between a man and a woman. Voters in all eleven states agreed. They approved amendments¹⁹ to their state constitutions to ban same-sex marriages. Thirteen of the fifty states now have such bans.

In California, a ballot measure to pay for stem cell research passed by fifty-nine percent. The state is to spend three thousand million dollars over ten years. Scientists will investigate possible uses for stem cells from embryos²⁰ for medical treatments.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, supported the measure. President Bush has restricted federal financing of studies on embryonic²¹ stem cells. Opponents say such research destroys life.

VOICE ONE:

In Arizona, voters agreed to require people to prove their American citizenship²² before they can sign up to vote. The initiative also requires state employees to report illegal immigrants who request public aid. Initiatives are a way for citizens to bypass a state legislature and put a measure to a popular vote.

The Democratic and Republican parties both opposed the measure. But many people in the state say more needs to be done about illegal immigration. Arizona borders Mexico.

In Colorado, voters rejected a proposal to change the way that state awards its nine electoral votes. Almost all states, including Colorado, have a winner-takes-all system.

VOICE TWO:

Voters, however, did agree to require Colorado to get at least ten percent of its electricity from the wind and sun by two thousand fifteen.

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Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson, Jill Moss²³ and Caty Weaver²⁴, who was also our producer. This is Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

And this is Faith Lapidus. To send us e-mail, write to [email protected]. And join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English.

1 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

2 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。

3 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》

4 concession   

n.让步，妥协；特许(权)

参考例句：

• We can not make heavy concession to the matter.我们在这个问题上不能过于让步。
• That is a great concession.这是很大的让步。

5 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

6 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。

7 notably   

adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地

参考例句：

• Many students were absent,notably the monitor.许多学生缺席，特别是连班长也没来。
• A notably short,silver-haired man,he plays basketball with his staff several times a week.他个子明显较为矮小，一头银发，每周都会和他的员工一起打几次篮球。

8 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

9 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

10 ken   

n.视野，知识领域

参考例句：

• Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
• Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.

11 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。

12 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》

13 electorate   

n.全体选民；选区

参考例句：

• The government was responsible to the electorate.政府对全体选民负责。
• He has the backing of almost a quarter of the electorate.他得到了几乎1/4选民的支持。

14 graphic   

adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的

参考例句：

• The book gave a graphic description of the war.这本书生动地描述了战争的情况。
• Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons.用图标来区分重要的文本项。

15 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

16 Christians   

n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Christians of all denominations attended the conference. 基督教所有教派的人都出席了这次会议。
• His novel about Jesus caused a furore among Christians. 他关于耶稣的小说激起了基督教徒的公愤。

17 pregnancies   

怀孕，妊娠( pregnancy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Since the wartime population needed replenishment, pregnancies were a good sign. 最后一桩倒不失为好现象，战时人口正该补充。
• She's had three pregnancies in four years. 她在四年中怀孕叁次。

18 unlimited   

adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的

参考例句：

• They flew over the unlimited reaches of the Arctic.他们飞过了茫茫无边的北极上空。
• There is no safety in unlimited technological hubris.在技术方面自以为是会很危险。

19 amendments   

（法律、文件的）改动( amendment的名词复数 )； 修正案； 修改； （美国宪法的）修正案

参考例句：

• The committee does not adequately consult others when drafting amendments. 委员会在起草修正案时没有充分征求他人的意见。
• Please propose amendments and addenda to the first draft of the document. 请对这个文件的初稿提出修改和补充意见。

20 embryos   

n.晶胚；胚，胚胎( embryo的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Somatic cells of angiosperms enter a regenerative phase and behave like embryos. 被子植物体细胞进入一个生殖阶段，而且其行为象胚。 来自辞典例句
• Evolution can explain why human embryos look like gilled fishes. 进化论能够解释为什么人类的胚胎看起来象除去了内脏的鱼一样。 来自辞典例句

21 embryonic   

adj.胚胎的

参考例句：

• It is still in an embryonic stage.它还处于萌芽阶段。
• The plan,as yet,only exists in embryonic form.这个计划迄今为止还只是在酝酿之中。

22 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

23 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
• He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。

24 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。