美国国家公共电台 NPR As Election Fraud Probe Centers On N.C.'s 9th District, A Cynical Cloud Settles In

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

We travel next to the center of an alleged¹ case of election fraud. It is Bladen County, N.C., part of North Carolina's 9th Congressional District. It's rural, about 150 miles east of Charlotte. It is home to a facility that is part of the country's largest pork processing plant, Smithfield Foods. NPR's Miles Parks went to Bladen.

MILES PARKS, BYLINE²: Inside his barbershop in Bladenboro, N.C., Rodney Baxley is giving Bobby Simmons a haircut. They're talking about what everyone in this part of the state has been talking about for the better part of the past month, McCrae Dowless and the operation he was running to get out the vote for Republican Mark Harris.

RODNEY BAXLEY: You know, I don't think he cares who wins as long as he makes money is the way I look at it.

BOBBY SIMMONS: He's in it for the cash.

BAXLEY: He's in it for the money to make a living because I don't - I'm not sure if he works anymore.

PARKS: A number of voters have come forward to say Dowless collected their ballots⁴, which is illegal. In North Carolina, only a voter or their near relative can return an absentee ballot³. One man signed an affidavit⁵ this week saying he saw Dowless with as many as 800 ballots in his possession before the election.

All that has the State Board of Elections looking into whether the ballots Dowless handled were actually all turned in or whether they were manipulated in some way. Ultimately, the state board will decide whether a new election is necessary.

Here's Baxley again.

BAXLEY: You know, absentee ballots are supposed to be for people who are off working or overseas or in the military, but, you know, that's not the way it's done around here. They get people to do these absentee ballots so they can control some of them.

PARKS: NPR's reached out to Dowless, but he's declined multiple requests for comment. His friend of 30 years, Pat Melvin, says the spotlight⁶ on Dowless and on the Harris campaign is going to ruin politics in the 9th District.

PAT MELVIN: We'll never have any decent people to run for offices again. So that's really what's going to happen. You're just going to get the worst of the worst.

PARKS: Melvin says Dowless didn't do anything illegal. Bladen is a poor county, and Melvin says Dowless was just going into low-income and senior citizen housing units to combat Democratic efforts to court those voters.

MELVIN: And those people probably wouldn't give a [expletive] who they vote for, irregardless (ph). They have nothing to do with politics, but their vote can count. And that's what we're all about - everybody's voting counting. So when one side was doing it, it was perfectly⁷ fine. Nobody's ever complained about anything. But then whenever other people were starting to combat, well, listen; this is what it's going to have to take for us to win a race. That's basically what happened.

PARKS: Sandra Hines lives in the Hill Estates, one of the senior communities that Dowless and his team were seen collecting ballots in. She's lived in Bladen on-and-off all her life.

SANDRA HINES: But every time I come back, I get disillusioned⁸ and I leave. And I come back, and I leave. And I come back. And you go away and come back 10, 20 years, and it still looks the same. Nothing - no progress. Nothing.

PARKS: She says two women came to her door before the election and signed her up for an absentee ballot. She received it and mailed it in, however. She didn't hand it over to a third party. Still, the ongoing⁹ investigation¹⁰ has her suspicious.

HINES: That makes me wonder about any of the other elections. What else has been crookedly¹¹ done?

PARKS: It kind of affects your faith in the whole system.

HINES: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's been shattered quite a bit with all this.

PARKS: She says she's planning to leave Bladen again this summer to move to California to be with her son and her grandkids. Miles Parks, NPR News, Bladen County, N.C.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

1 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 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。

4 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》

5 affidavit   

n.宣誓书

参考例句：

• I gave an affidavit to the judge about the accident I witnessed.我向法官提交了一份关于我目击的事故的证词。
• The affidavit was formally read to the court.书面证词正式向出席法庭的人宣读了。

6 spotlight   

n.公众注意的中心，聚光灯，探照灯，视听，注意，醒目

参考例句：

• This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
• The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。

7 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

8 disillusioned   

a.不再抱幻想的，大失所望的，幻想破灭的

参考例句：

• I soon became disillusioned with the job. 我不久便对这个工作不再抱幻想了。
• Many people who are disillusioned in reality assimilate life to a dream. 许多对现实失望的人把人生比作一场梦。

9 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

10 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

11 crookedly   

adv. 弯曲地，不诚实地

参考例句：

• A crow flew crookedly like a shadow over the end of the salt lake. 一只乌鸦像个影子般地在盐湖的另一边鬼鬼祟祟地飞来飞去的。