Donald Trump is busy building his Cabinet and planning his agenda, but he isn’t really, officially going to be President quite yet. One of the peculiarities of American democracy is that it’s a group of 538 "electors" -- members of the Electoral College -- in this nation of 318 million who actually pick the president.

　　唐纳德·特朗普正在忙于打造内阁和计划日程，可是他还尚未真正正式地入主白宫。美国民主的一大独特性即是，在这个有着3.18亿人口的国家里事实上是由一个538位“选举人”组成的团体，即选举人团来挑选总统。

　　They’ll do it, meeting in their respective states, on December 19th. The outcome is a foregone conclusion, but there is room, however small, for a surprise: an uprising, as called for by some Democrats and even some Republicans, of "faithless electors."

　　他们将会于12月19日在各自的州进行会晤并选出总统。虽然结果是预知的，但是仍有意外的悬念，尽管可能性很小：“失信选举人”的出现，也就是一些民主党人甚至是部分共和党人所呼吁的。

　　None of the electors are constitutionally bound to follow the will of the people they represent, so they can deny Trump the presidency.

　　宪法并没有规定选举人应该遵守他们所代表的人民的意愿，因此他们可以否决特朗普的总统职位。

　　Scenario 1: Trump wins

　　情境1：特朗普上台

　　Based on the Nov. 8 vote, Trump is projected to have 306 votes in the Electoral College -- he’ll need at least 270 of them to formally choose him on December 19. Those results will be counted and certified by a Joint Session of Congress on January 3.

　　基于11月8日的投票，预计特朗普将会获得306张选举人票——他至少需要270张选举人票才能够在12月19日正式胜出。结果将由国会联席会议于1月3日统计和证实。

　　Scenario 2: ’Faithless Electors’ swing the election to Clinton

　　情境2：“失信选举人”倒向希拉里

　　If everyone votes as intended, then Clinton will receive 232 electoral votes -- 38 shy of the 270 majority she needed to be elected President. So her fate is all but sealed. The scenario that could reverse it would require an extraordinary revolt by dozens of electors, with at least those 38 from states Trump won leaving him to back Clinton and bring her to 270. But this is unlikely.

　　如果每一位选举人都按照计划投票，那么希拉里将会获得232张选举人票——距离成为当选总统所需的270张还差38张。那么，她就注定要败选。这种情况只会在几十个选举人改变计划时才会发生，至少要有38个特朗普胜出的州转而倒向希拉里才能将其带回到270张选举人票。但是这是不可能的。

　　Scenario 3: Trump electors defect, but neither candidate receives 270 votes

　　情境3：特朗普支持者不足，但是也没有候选人获得270张选举人票

　　Before we dig in to how it could go down, here are a few more reasons it will not.

　　在我们深入了解这种情况之前，会有更多的理由让我们相信这是不可能的。

　　Though there is nothing in the Constitution or federal law that prevents "faithless electors" from voting for a candidate who did not receive a plurality of the popular vote in their state, 29 states do have laws to discourage potential rogues. Among the punishments are potential fines or the threat of being replaced with another elector.

　　虽然宪法或联邦法律并未阻止“失信选举人”给那位未在该州获得多数选票的候选人投票，但是有29个州确实有法律阻止潜在的变卦。其中的惩罚可能就是罚款或者是被革职的风险。

（编辑：何莹莹）