纽约时报 爱荷华州的民主党初选风波(1)

Bad app was just a link in Iowa's Chain of Failure

糟糕的软件不过是爱荷华州一系列失败中的一环

By Reid J. Epstein, Sydney Ember, Trip Gabriel and Mike Baker¹

文/里德·J.爱泼斯坦，悉尼·恩伯，特里普·加布里尔，迈克·贝克尔

The first signs of trouble came early.

麻烦的第一轮征兆很早就出现了。

As the smartphone app for reporting the results of the Iowa Democratic caucuses³ began failing last Monday night,

上周一晚，用于报告爱荷华州民主党总统初选结果的手机软件出现故障后，

party officials instructed precinct leaders to move to Plan B:

该党官员便指示选区带头人启动备选方案：

calling the results into caucus² headquarters,

将初选结果收入选举总部，

where dozens of volunteers would enter the figures into a secure system.

那里的数十名志愿者可将数据存入一个安全的系统。

But when many of those volunteers tried to log on to their computers, they made an unsettling discovery.

然而，就在多名志愿者尝试登陆他们的电脑时，一个令人不安的画面映入了他们的眼帘：

They needed smartphones to retrieve⁴ a code,

需要智能手机获取验证码。

but they had been told not to bring their phones into the “boiler⁵ room” in Des Moines.

问题是，他们已经被告知不能将手机带入得梅因的“锅炉房”（即核心办公室）。

As a torrent⁶ of results were phoned in from school gymnasiums,

投票结果从学校体育馆，工会大堂等各类聚集场所——

union halls and the myriad⁷ other gathering⁸ places that made the Iowa caucuses a world-famous model of democracy,

正是这些场所使得爱荷华州成为了举世闻名的民主典范——铺天盖地而来，

it soon became clear that the whole process was melting down.

很快，事实便已浮出水面：爱德华州这次的选举程序整个崩溃了。

Volunteers resorted to passing around a spare iPad to log into the system.

志愿者们只能靠传用一台备用iPad登陆系统。

Melissa Watson, the state party’s chief financial officer, who was in charge of the boiler room,

民主党官员后来承认，负责该锅炉房的民主党CFO梅丽莎·沃森

did not know how to operate a Google spreadsheet application used to input⁹ data, Democratic officials later acknowledged.

甚至都不懂如何操作此次被用来输入数据的谷歌表格软件。

Others, desperate to verify results, began telling some precinct leaders to email photographs of their worksheets —

其他人则已迫不及待地想要核实投票结果，他们告诉部分选区带头人，可将他们的表格——也即用以统计投票结果的那张纸——拍照，

the paper forms used to tally¹⁰ results — to a dedicated¹¹ email address.

并以邮件的方式发送到一个专用的接收地址。

But for hours, no one monitored the inbox.

然而，几个小时的时间里没有一个人留意那个收件箱。

When it was finally opened Tuesday morning,

周二早晨他们终于打开那个收件箱时，

there were 700 unread emails waiting, with photos that had been sent sideways;

里面已经收到了700封未读邮件，附带着一张又一张横屏照片；

volunteers had to crane their necks to decipher the handwritten forms.

为了破译那些手写的表格，志愿者们不得不把脖子伸得老长。

An hour after the caucuses began, the Iowa Democratic Party chairman, Troy Price,

投票进行一个小时后，该州民主党主席特洛伊·普莱斯

huddled¹² in another room with other officials,

和其他官员挤进了另一个房间，

none of them with a clear strategy to manage the unfolding chaos¹³

却没有一个人能提出一个明确的方案，能收拾当前的混乱局面，

or answers to share with increasingly exasperated¹⁴ presidential campaigns.

也没有一个人能提出可供日益恼火的总统大选借鉴的答案。

A conference call with the campaigns ended with Mr. Price hanging up on them,

几十年来，爱荷华州上报的恐怕一直都是错误的投票结果，在这样的一片指责声中，

amid accusations¹⁵ that caucus results in Iowa may have been incorrectly reported for decades.

与竞选团队的电话会议以普莱斯的主动挂断草草收场。

As disastrous¹⁶ as the 2020 Iowa caucuses have appeared to the public,

对知情人士的数十次采访显示，尽管在民众看来，

the failure runs deeper and wider than has previously¹⁷ been known,

2020年爱荷华州的初选经历已经颇为惨痛，

according to dozens of interviews with those involved.

然而，此次失败的影响比大家先前所了解的还要深远。

It was a total system breakdown¹⁸ that casts doubt

此次失败堪称一次彻头彻尾的系统崩溃，不禁让人怀疑，

on how a critical contest on the American political calendar has been managed for years.

多年来，美国政治舞台上这场至关重要的较量究竟是如何开展的。

Until now, the main public villain¹⁹ in the Iowa caucus fiasco has been the reporting app,

截至目前，爱荷华州这场初选惨剧的罪魁祸首一直是那个报告投票结果的软件，

created by a company called Shadow Inc.,

开发该软件的公司名为“影子股份有限公司”（Shadow Inc.）,

along with a “coding issue” in a back-end results reporting system that state party officials blamed for the chaos.

以及被州民主党官员指责造成了此次混乱的后端结果报告系统的“编码问题”。

But the crackup resulted from cascading²⁰ failures going back months.

然而，此次系统的崩溃是几个月的连锁故障引发的结果。

1 baker   

n.面包师

参考例句：

• The baker bakes his bread in the bakery.面包师在面包房内烤面包。
• The baker frosted the cake with a mixture of sugar and whites of eggs.面包师在蛋糕上撒了一层白糖和蛋清的混合料。

2 caucus   

n.秘密会议；干部会议；v.（参加）干部开会议

参考例句：

• This multi-staged caucus takes several months.这个多级会议常常历时好几个月。
• It kept the Democratic caucus from fragmenting.它也使得民主党的核心小组避免了土崩瓦解的危险。

3 caucuses   

n.（政党决定政策或推举竞选人的）核心成员( caucus的名词复数 )；决策干部；决策委员会；秘密会议

参考例句：

• Republican caucuses will happen in about 410 towns across Maine. 共和党团会议选举将在缅因州的约410个城镇进行。 来自互联网

4 retrieve   

vt.重新得到，收回；挽回，补救；检索

参考例句：

• He was determined to retrieve his honor.他决心恢复名誉。
• The men were trying to retrieve weapons left when the army abandoned the island.士兵们正试图找回军队从该岛撤退时留下的武器。

5 boiler   

n.锅炉；煮器(壶，锅等)

参考例句：

• That boiler will not hold up under pressure.那种锅炉受不住压力。
• This new boiler generates more heat than the old one.这个新锅炉产生的热量比旧锅炉多。

6 torrent   

n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发

参考例句：

• The torrent scoured a channel down the hillside. 急流沿着山坡冲出了一条沟。
• Her pent-up anger was released in a torrent of words.她压抑的愤怒以滔滔不绝的话爆发了出来。

7 myriad   

adj.无数的；n.无数，极大数量

参考例句：

• They offered no solution for all our myriad problems.对于我们数不清的问题他们束手无策。
• I had three weeks to make a myriad of arrangements.我花了三个星期做大量准备工作。

8 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

9 input   

n.输入(物)；投入；vt.把(数据等)输入计算机

参考例句：

• I will forever be grateful for his considerable input.我将永远感激他的大量投入。
• All this information had to be input onto the computer.所有这些信息都必须输入计算机。

10 tally   

n.计数器，记分，一致，测量；vt.计算，记录，使一致；vi.计算，记分，一致

参考例句：

• Don't forget to keep a careful tally of what you spend.别忘了仔细记下你的开支账目。
• The facts mentioned in the report tally to every detail.报告中所提到的事实都丝毫不差。

11 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

12 huddled   

挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• We huddled together for warmth. 我们挤在一块取暖。
• We huddled together to keep warm. 我们挤在一起来保暖。

13 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

14 exasperated   

adj.恼怒的

参考例句：

• We were exasperated at his ill behaviour. 我们对他的恶劣行为感到非常恼怒。
• Constant interruption of his work exasperated him. 对他工作不断的干扰使他恼怒。

15 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。

16 disastrous   

adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的

参考例句：

• The heavy rainstorm caused a disastrous flood.暴雨成灾。
• Her investment had disastrous consequences.She lost everything she owned.她的投资结果很惨，血本无归。

17 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

18 breakdown   

n.垮，衰竭；损坏，故障，倒塌

参考例句：

• She suffered a nervous breakdown.她患神经衰弱。
• The plane had a breakdown in the air,but it was fortunately removed by the ace pilot.飞机在空中发生了故障，但幸运的是被王牌驾驶员排除了。

19 villain   

n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因

参考例句：

• He was cast as the villain in the play.他在戏里扮演反面角色。
• The man who played the villain acted very well.扮演恶棍的那个男演员演得很好。

20 cascading   

流注( cascade的现在分词 )； 大量落下； 大量垂悬； 梯流

参考例句：

• First of all, cascading menus are to be avoided at all costs. 首先，无论如何都要避免使用级联菜单。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Her sounds began cascading gently. 他的声音开始缓缓地低落下来。