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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Georgia will hold a runoff between U.S. Senate candidates Warnock and Walker
Neither U.S. Senate candidate got enough votes to win the election outright2. Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker will face each other in a runoff in December.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
For a second straight time, control of the U.S. Senate may come down to a second round of voting in Georgia.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
After Tuesday's election, neither candidate received 50% of the vote in Georgia. So Democrat3 Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker will be on the ballot4 again December 6. Here's the way the math works. Three Senate races are undecided. Whoever wins two of them takes control. Arizona and Nevada are still counting and may need a few days. And if they do not give either party a Senate majority, Georgia takes its turn.
FADEL: Joining us now for more is Georgia Public Broadcasting's Stephen Fowler. Good morning, Stephen.
STEPHEN FOWLER, BYLINE5: Good morning.
FADEL: So why not just start by explaining Georgia's election rules and how we got to this point.
FOWLER: Sure. So Georgia is actually one of two states that requires a runoff for both a primary and a general election if nobody gets more than 50% of the vote. And with a libertarian in the Senate race, plus Georgia being a close battleground state, that's not always a given for candidates to get above 50%. So here, with very few ballots6 remaining, Senator Raphael Warnock is about half a percent under that cutoff and narrowly ahead of Herschel Walker. And since elections officials say there aren't going to be enough ballots left to be counted to change that outcome, Georgia is now headed to a runoff election again for the U.S. Senate.
Now, what's interesting is that Georgia runoff laws were initially7 enacted8 by segregationist9 Democrats10 trying to keep Black voters from picking a candidate of their choice, essentially11 ensuring all the white voters who supported different white candidates would coalesce12 around a white candidate in a runoff. But now, in 2022, we've got two Black candidates for one of the highest offices in the land that voters will choose from because of these runoff laws.
FADEL: Wow. So a law originally aimed at disenfranchising Black voters is the reason this runoff rule even exists. Now, Stephen, this Senate race is an outlier for Republicans, right? They otherwise dominated the election in Georgia. So what does this close race tell us about these candidates, especially Herschel Walker, really, as a Republican candidate?
FOWLER: Well, Walker is a weaker candidate, like some of the other Trump-backed candidates we've seen in states that have had issues here. He's been dogged by controversies13 over alleged14 payments of abortions15 to ex-girlfriends, a past history of domestic violence allegations, nonsensical statements about policy and so many other things. Voting data shows, so far, Walker's underperforming Governor Brian Kemp by a large margin16 in very Republican counties in the state at about 5% overall, meaning 1-in-10 Republican voters in Georgia opted17 for somebody else in a Senate race. Now, Warnock is a well-known figure. He's an incumbent18 who's pitched himself as a problem-solver who works in a bipartisan manner and managed to distance himself from President Joe Biden's unpopularity. They've both raised boatloads of cash. And this is the most expensive Senate race. That spending is set to continue.
FADEL: Now, the runoff is December 6, four weeks away. That's a quick turnaround. What should voters expect in the runoff? And is either candidate favored at this point?
FOWLER: Well, they should expect a lot of ads with their Thanksgiving turkey. But it's hard to say who's at the advantage. Typically, whoever finished first in the general election usually wins the runoff. A notable exception is 2021, when fellow Democratic Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff beat David Perdue in 2021. There's also some timing19 things to consider. The previous runoff used to be nine weeks. Campaigns had time to gear things up. Now they're just hitting the ground running. And early voting doesn't even start until after Thanksgiving.
FADEL: Stephen Fowler of Georgia Public Broadcasting. Thank you.
FOWLER: Thank you.
1 transcript | |
n.抄本,誊本,副本,肄业证书 | |
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2 outright | |
adv.坦率地;彻底地;立即;adj.无疑的;彻底的 | |
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3 democrat | |
n.民主主义者,民主人士;民主党党员 | |
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4 ballot | |
n.(不记名)投票,投票总数,投票权;vi.投票 | |
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5 byline | |
n.署名;v.署名 | |
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6 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 ) | |
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7 initially | |
adv.最初,开始 | |
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8 enacted | |
制定(法律),通过(法案)( enact的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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9 segregationist | |
隔离主义者 | |
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10 democrats | |
n.民主主义者,民主人士( democrat的名词复数 ) | |
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11 essentially | |
adv.本质上,实质上,基本上 | |
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12 coalesce | |
v.联合,结合,合并 | |
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13 controversies | |
争论 | |
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14 alleged | |
a.被指控的,嫌疑的 | |
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15 abortions | |
n.小产( abortion的名词复数 );小产胎儿;(计划)等中止或夭折;败育 | |
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16 margin | |
n.页边空白;差额;余地,余裕;边,边缘 | |
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17 opted | |
v.选择,挑选( opt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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18 incumbent | |
adj.成为责任的,有义务的;现任的,在职的 | |
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19 timing | |
n.时间安排,时间选择 | |
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