纽约时报 一张遍布缺陷的选举地图暴露了所有问题(3)（在线收听）

The race between George W. Bush and Al Gore, ultimately decided by the Supreme Court,

乔治·W·布什和戈尔的竞选之争，最终的裁决权在最高法院手里，

exposed the fragility of a system that Americans had previously taken for granted.

就已经暴露了从前被美国人视为理所当然的制度何等脆弱。

Technical problems with decrepit machines had caused some votes to be counted more than once or not at all.

破旧的机器造成的技术问题让部分选票不是被重复统计了，就是根本没被统计上。

A badly designed ballot confused thousands of people.

设计糟糕的选票系统迷惑了无数人。

And a poorly executed purge of registration rolls led to eligible voters being turned away at the polls.

落实清除选举程序时执行不力导致原本合格的选民被排斥在了选举之外。

"What we learned in that was how confusing the entire process was,"

“从这一问题上，我们看出了我们的整个选举程序是多么混乱，”

said Adam Goodman, a Republican consultant who advised Florida's secretary of state at the time, Katherine Harris, during the recount.

共和党顾问，曾在佛罗里达州州务卿凯瑟琳·哈里斯重新统计选票时为她出谋划策的亚当·古德曼说。

"That was something the public back then didn't understand. It still doesn't understand."

“民众当时并不明白这一点，他们现在也没明白过来。”

Fallout from the recount contributed to the passage of the federal Help America Vote Act,

重新统计选票也从侧面促成了联邦《帮助美国投票法》的通过，

which allocated billions of dollars for states to improve technology, ensure voter access and secure systems against fraud.

各州因此拿到了数十亿美元的拨款改进技术，确保选举通道顺畅，同时保护系统免受欺诈的干扰。

In Florida, legislators rewrote state laws, switched to paper ballots and optical scanners (no more butterfly ballots or hanging chads),

佛罗里达州的议员重修了州法律，投票改用纸质选票和光学扫描仪（从此再也不会出现所谓的“蝴蝶选票”或者“孔屑废票”了）

and mandated automatic recounts for races with margins of half a percentage point.

还对用误差范围为0.5%的机器重新统计选票做出了硬性要求。

Charles Stewart III, a leading expert on election administration at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,

麻省理工选举管理的头号专家查尔斯·斯图尔特三世表示，

said complaints about this month's elections in some parts of the country should not be seen as evidence of a failing system, or lack of progress since 2000.

民众对本月部分地区的选举的不满，不足以被视为选举系统不合格或者自系统2000年来一直缺乏进展的证据。

"Elections are incredibly complicated," Mr. Stewart said, "and officials are legally required to take time beyond Election Day to count votes."

“选举是非常复杂的，”斯图尔特说，“法律也要求相关工作人员加班加点来计票。”

"Just the fact that we have a recount in Florida is leading people to say, ‘Ah, here we go again,'" he said.

“佛罗里达州重新计票都会致使有人说，'啊，又来了，'”他说。

"In fact, it's just a close election."

“事实上，这只不过是一次势均力敌的选举。”

Though it wasn't a 2000 redux, the 2018 midterms exposed persistent problems

尽管2018年的中期选举并没有重演2000年选举的悲剧，但还是暴露了一些持续存在的问题，

and the haphazard way the voting process was administered across the country.

也暴露了全国各地管理投票流程的方式十分混乱的问题。

In Arkansas, three-member boards handle elections at the county level, while in Connecticut all 169 towns and cities use their own registrars.

比如，阿肯色州只有一个三人规模的委员会处理县级选举事务，康涅狄格州的169个城镇用的又都是各自的书记官。

The inherently political nature of running elections can call into question some officials' decision-making.

管理选举这项工作固有的政治属性也会让一些官员的决策受到质疑。

"In New York, party leaders fill county election boards in what critics say is little more than a patronage system.

“纽约的党领导人给县选举委员会安排的人选就被批判者们说和裙带体系没什么两样。

They are not chosen for their ability to manage or familiarity with election procedures,"

那些人能当选既不是因为他们出色的管理能力，也不是因为他们熟悉选举流程，”

said Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause in New York City.

纽约“共同目标”组织的执行董事苏珊勒纳说。

"They are chosen for their party loyalty and to provide jobs to the party faithful."

“他们能当选是因为他们对党忠诚，是为了给那些忠诚于党的人提供工作机会。”

Florida still does not have a standardized, statewide ballot format,

佛罗里达州至今也没有一个能在整个州范围内使用的标准化的选票格式，

and a poorly designed ballot in the heavily Democratic Broward County this month

本月严重偏向民主党的布劳沃德郡糟糕的选票设计

is believed to have led to a significant under-vote for Senator Bill Nelson, a Democrat, who was narrowly behind Mr. Scott.

也被认为是导致原本只稍稍落后斯科特的参议院候选人比尔·纳尔逊，民主党人，最终选票远远不够的原因。

Some 30,000 people in Broward voted for governor but inexplicably bypassed the Senate race,

布劳沃德约有3万人投票支持州长，但都莫名其妙地绕过了参议院竞选的投票，

which was tucked away in the lower left corner of the ballot, below the instructions and far from the rest of the contests.

因为那部分被藏在了选票的左下角，还在投票说明的下方，距离其他内容也较远。

Palm Beach County voters were given ballots that required them to draw a line to complete an arrow pointing to their preferred candidates,

棕榈滩县的选民拿到的选票要求他们画一条线让那个指向他们支持的候选人的箭头变成一个完整的箭头，

a potentially confusing alternative to the more common methods of filling in a bubble or making a check mark.

比起更加常见的涂圆圈或者打勾，这种方式容易让人产生混淆。

Meanwhile, Mr. Nelson has brought a lawsuit in federal court over how Florida counties validate signatures on mail-in and provisional ballots,

与此同时，纳尔逊向联邦法院提起了诉讼，控告佛罗里达各县验证邮寄选票和临时选票上的签名，

a process his campaign claims is unconstitutional because of inconsistent criteria applied by elections staff;

他的竞选团队称这一做法有违宪法，因为选举工作人员采用的标准不统一；

a judge gave voters till Saturday to validate their mismatched signatures .

某法官已经在周六前让选民去证实不匹配的签名了。