纽约时报 一张遍布缺陷的选举地图暴露了所有问题(1)

An Election Grid¹ Rife² of Flaws Shows Them All

一张遍布缺陷的选举地图暴露了所有问题

By Mike McIntire, Michael Wines and Alan Blinder

文/迈克·麦肯泰尔，迈克尔·怀恩斯，阿兰·布林德

County officials in Maryland miscalculated how many ballots⁴ they would need on Election Day--and quickly ran out in more than a dozen precincts.

马里兰州的县官员在计算他们选举日所需选票张数时出错了，很快，十几个选区的选举工作都暂停了下来。

In New York City, voters were given a two-sheet ballot³ that jammed machines and caused delays and long lines.

在纽约市，分发到选民手上的那种两张一连的选票不仅堵塞了计数的机器，还导致了延误，并迫使人们排起了长队。

And in Georgia, some voters failed to provide details like a birth year,

在格鲁吉亚，一些选民没有提供像出生年份这样的细节，

leading officials to reject hundreds of absentee ballots for "insufficient⁵ oath information" before federal judges intervened.

导致官员们在联邦法官介入之前以“誓约信息不足”为由作废了数百张缺席票，

Nearly two decades after voting problems in a handful of Florida counties paralyzed the nation,

曾经，佛罗里达几个县的投票问题就让整个国家的选举陷入了瘫痪，尽管此事过去已经快二十年了，

America's election grid this month remained a crazy patchwork⁶ of inconveniences, confusion and errors, both human-made and mechanical.

美国本月的选举地图还是狂乱地拼凑着各种不便、困惑以及错误，既有人为的错误也有机器方面的错误。

The lumbering⁷ system, combined with claims of voter suppression and skewed maps from redistricting,

笨拙的选举系统，加上“选民压制”之说和重新划分选区后出现的选举地图的倾斜，

once again tested confidence in the integrity of the vote.

再次考验了人们对投票公正性的信心。

As in 2000, no evidence emerged of widespread fraud or political interference.

与2000年一样，目前并没有证据表明选举存在广泛的欺诈或政治干预。

But just finding enough qualified⁸ poll workers to make Election Day happen was once again a challenge,

然而，这次选举依然面临着找不到足够多合格的选举工作人员，让选举日的工作顺利开展的难题，

as voters navigated⁹ more than 100,000 polling places, staffed by 900,000 mostly volunteer workers and administered by some 10,000 local jurisdictions¹⁰.

因为选民分布在10万多个投票站，这些投票站的90万工作人员大部分都是志愿者，分属近1万个地方管辖区管理。

(After the 2016 election, nearly two-thirds of local elections officials nationwide reported difficulties in recruiting workers.)

（2016年大选之后，全国近三分之二的地方选举官员都报告说很难招到工作人员。）

The unevenness¹¹ of the system across the country--in 22 states, elections at the local level were overseen¹² by just one person--

各地选举系统的不平衡——有22个州地方一级的选举都只有一个人监管——

made it a political process open to accusations¹³ of manipulation.

让选举有了被指责存在暗箱操作的风险。

In some states, including New Jersey¹⁴, South Carolina and Louisiana,

在某些州，包括新泽西州，南卡罗来纳州和路易斯安那州，

officials depended on electronic voting machines that have no paper backups in case of a contested outcome.

官员们还存在依赖电子投票机，这种机器不存在为防结果出现争议而留下的纸质备份，的问题。

In Georgia, 16-year-old machines led to the improbable scene of Brian Kemp--

在佐治亚州，正是那个已经用了16年的老古董导致了不可思议的布莱恩·肯普事件——

the secretary of state overseeing elections and the Republican candidate for governor--

肯普是监督选举的国务卿，也是共和党一方的州长候选人——

being briefly¹⁵ thwarted¹⁶ in his attempt to cast a ballot for himself.

他在试图为自己投票时遭遇了一时的挫折。

The computer system, running on Windows 2000 software, returned an error.

电脑系统，选举用的是Windows 2000的系统，反馈了一个错误。

Broader worries about the handling of provisional ballots in Georgia and the security of a computer system

人们对格鲁吉亚的临时选票会作何处理以及计算机系统安全问题的广泛担忧

led a federal judge to delay certification of the state's results.

导致联邦法官推迟了对该州选举结果的认证。

On Friday, the Democrat¹⁷ Stacey Abrams ended her bid for governor in the race against Mr. Kemp,

周五，民主党人斯泰西·艾布拉姆斯在与肯普竞争的环节结束了她对州长的竞选之旅，

while denouncing what she called "systemic disenfranchisement, disinvestment and incompetence¹⁸."

同时谴责了她所谓的“系统性地剥夺公民权、系统性地撤资和系统性的无能”问题。

Legal actions were initiated¹⁹ in Florida, where close margins²⁰ forced recounts in the races for Senate and governor,

佛罗里达州开始采取了法律行动，因为不同候选人的选票差额较小，迫使官员们要对参议院和州长的竞选选票进行重新统计，

and questions arose about whether eligible²¹ mail-in ballots were improperly²² rejected.

也因为人们对合格的邮寄选票有没有被不当淘汰产生了疑问。

Election officials were to conclude manual recounts in the Senate race by Sunday.

周日之前，选举官员将完成参议院竞选选票的人工统计工作。

But on Saturday evening, with a manual recount not conducted in the contest for governor,

然而，周六晚上，州长竞选的选票并没有重新进行人工统计，

Andrew Gillum, the Democratic nominee²³, conceded to Ron DeSantis, the Republican candidate.

民主党候选人安德鲁·吉卢姆因此输给了共和党候选人罗恩·德桑蒂斯。

1 grid   

n.高压输电线路网；地图坐标方格；格栅

参考例句：

• In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下，要用载体把格栅密封起来。
• Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。

2 rife   

adj.(指坏事情)充斥的，流行的，普遍的

参考例句：

• Disease is rife in the area.疾病在这一区很流行。
• Corruption was rife before the election.选举之前腐败盛行。

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 insufficient   

adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的

参考例句：

• There was insufficient evidence to convict him.没有足够证据给他定罪。
• In their day scientific knowledge was insufficient to settle the matter.在他们的时代，科学知识还不能足以解决这些问题。

6 patchwork   

n.混杂物；拼缝物

参考例句：

• That proposal is nothing else other than a patchwork.那个建议只是一个大杂烩而已。
• She patched new cloth to the old coat,so It'seemed mere patchwork. 她把新布初到那件旧上衣上，所以那件衣服看上去就象拼凑起来的东西。

7 lumbering   

n.采伐林木

参考例句：

• Lumbering and, later, paper-making were carried out in smaller cities. 木材业和后来的造纸都由较小的城市经营。
• Lumbering is very important in some underdeveloped countries. 在一些不发达的国家，伐木业十分重要。

8 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。

9 navigated   

v.给（船舶、飞机等）引航，导航( navigate的过去式和过去分词 )；（从海上、空中等）横越；横渡；飞跃

参考例句：

• He navigated the plane through the clouds. 他驾驶飞机穿越云层。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The ship was navigated by the North Star. 那只船靠北极星来导航。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 jurisdictions   

司法权( jurisdiction的名词复数 )； 裁判权； 管辖区域； 管辖范围

参考例句：

• Butler entreated him to remember the act abolishing the heritable jurisdictions. 巴特勒提醒他注意废除世袭审判权的国会法令。
• James I personally adjudicated between the two jurisdictions. 詹姆士一世亲自裁定双方纠纷。

11 unevenness   

n. 不平坦，不平衡，不匀性

参考例句：

• This unevenness comes about because topics are developed in a logical order. 所以出现这种不平衡，是因为课题是按逻辑顺序展开的。
• I sanded the corners to take away any unevenness in the joints. 我用砂纸磨边边角角的地方，去除接头处的不均。

12 overseen   

v.监督，监视( oversee的过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was overseen stealing the letters. 他被人撞见在偷信件。 来自辞典例句
• It will be overseen by ThomasLi, director of IBM China Research Laboratory. 该实验室由IBM中国研究院院长李实恭(ThomasLi)引导。 来自互联网

13 accusations   

n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名

参考例句：

• There were accusations of plagiarism. 曾有过关于剽窃的指控。
• He remained unruffled by their accusations. 对于他们的指控他处之泰然。

14 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

15 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

16 thwarted   

阻挠( thwart的过去式和过去分词 )； 使受挫折； 挫败； 横过

参考例句：

• The guards thwarted his attempt to escape from prison. 警卫阻扰了他越狱的企图。
• Our plans for a picnic were thwarted by the rain. 我们的野餐计划因雨受挫。

17 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。

18 incompetence   

n.不胜任，不称职

参考例句：

• He was dismissed for incompetence. 他因不称职而被解雇。
• She felt she had been made a scapegoat for her boss's incompetence. 她觉得，本是老板无能，但她却成了替罪羊。

19 initiated   

n. 创始人 adj. 新加入的 vt. 开始，创始，启蒙，介绍加入

参考例句：

• He has not yet been thoroughly initiated into the mysteries of computers. 他对计算机的奥秘尚未入门。
• The artist initiated the girl into the art world in France. 这个艺术家介绍这个女孩加入巴黎艺术界。

20 margins   

边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数

参考例句：

• They have always had to make do with relatively small profit margins. 他们不得不经常设法应付较少的利润额。
• To create more space between the navigation items, add left and right margins to the links. 在每个项目间留更多的空隙，加左或者右的margins来定义链接。

21 eligible   

adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的

参考例句：

• He is an eligible young man.他是一个合格的年轻人。
• Helen married an eligible bachelor.海伦嫁给了一个中意的单身汉。

22 improperly   

不正确地，不适当地

参考例句：

• Of course it was acting improperly. 这样做就是不对嘛！
• He is trying to improperly influence a witness. 他在试图误导证人。

23 nominee   

n.被提名者；被任命者；被推荐者

参考例句：

• His nominee for vice president was elected only after a second ballot.他提名的副总统在两轮投票后才当选。
• Mr.Francisco is standing as the official nominee for the post of District Secretary.弗朗西斯科先生是行政书记职位的正式提名人。