万花筒 2008-11-04&11-05 美国选民提前投票

Even before Election Day, records are being set in this year's presidential race. Officials are reporting record turnout in early voting with many locations extending hours to handle the numbers.

 

NBC’s Kerry Sanders has been watching the long lines in Florida today; he joins us now from outside Orlando. Kerry good evening!

 

Good evening, Lester. It is unprecedented¹. The line here three hours’ long. It will continue well into the night. Nationwide, it’s estimated 30%, that’s 40 million voters will have cast their votes early.

 

By the time the sun was up lines at some Florida early voting sites extended three hours, and the wait only got longer. Still, five-hour-long lines turned few voters away.

 

The lines are this long on Saturday, they are gonna be terrible on Tuesday. In this battleground state, it's  estimated more than 3 million voters have already cast ballots³. 30% of Florida's registered voters.

 

Both parties here acknowledge more Democrats⁴ than Republicans have voted early. “The McCain supporters are little more quiet with how they support him. So you definitely can’t draw a conclusion from that, cause that’s just inaccurate⁵, it doesn’t say anything about who’s voting for who.”

 

More than 30 states have early voting, experts say at this rate, one in three voters will have cast their choices before Tuesday, from Georgia, to South Carolina to across the nation. Election observers say this year’s early voters are decidedly younger and African American.

 

“That’s worth the wait, if I had to wait all day long, if I had to wait two days, I still will wait.”

 

With lines this long, a good question might be why not just use an absentee ballot², stick it in an envelope and mail it in, here in Florida voters say, because human errors in the past have caused some absentee ballots to be missed. They wanted to stand in line no matter how long to make sure their votes are counted. Lester.

 

Kerry Sanders in Florida's event, Kerry ,thank you.
 

1 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

2 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。

3 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》

4 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》

5 inaccurate   

adj.错误的，不正确的，不准确的

参考例句：

• The book is both inaccurate and exaggerated.这本书不但不准确，而且夸大其词。
• She never knows the right time because her watch is inaccurate.她从来不知道准确的时间因为她的表不准。