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美国大选：两党在最后阶段推动选民登记

The U.S. presidential election is approaching, and political parties and advocacy groups across the nation are making a final push to get people registered to vote and to the polls for the November 6th contest. Groups are mobilizing to get an underrepresented group of eligible¹ voters involved in the process.

美国总统大选还有两个星期，各政党与政治团体在全国进行最后阶段的努力让更多的人登记注册参加11月6号的投票，其中包括那些政治程度偏低的群体。

Shakei Haynes is helping² college students register to vote in the November election.

沙凯.海恩斯正在帮助大学生登记注册，参加11月的投票。

He's been doing this since 2005 when he was 16-years-old. Now he's a political science student at Howard University in Washington. He says the job is getting easier.

2005年当时只有16岁的海恩斯就开始参与这项工作。现在他是霍华德大学政治系学生。他说这个工作并不难：

"Mobilizing individuals to get registered to vote has not been hard at all because people understand the urgency. In this election, you have two different contrasting views of what America should look like over the next four years," said Haynes.

“动员人们登记注册从来就不是什么艰难的工作，因为人们了解它的紧迫性。在今年的大选中，我们面临的是两种截然不同的选择，会影响美国今后四年的方向。”

Some of these young African-American students will be first-time voters. Nearly half of the seven million African Americans ages 18 to 30 were unregistered and therefore not eligible to vote, according to the 2010 U.S. Census³.

这些年轻的非洲裔学生有的将是第一次参加投票。根据美国2010年的人口普查，在7百万18到30岁的非洲裔美国人当中将近一半的人没有登记，也就是说他们还没有投票的资格。

Shakei says that is unacceptable and young people, especially minorities, should not be underrepresented in the political process.

沙凯.海恩斯说，这种现象不应该存在，特别是那些政治参与程度偏低的少数族裔：

"A democracy should be reflective of the people who are in it. If we can, you know, make that process a little easier for students then that is our job, and that is the reward at the end of the day," he said.

“民主应该代表所有的人；我们会尽一切努力让学生们更容易参与这个政治程序，这是我们的工作，也让我们很有成就感。”

Howard student Jai Dungey is from New Jersey⁴. She says everyone should know their vote matters.

霍华德大学学生贾伊.邓吉来自新泽西州。她说每个人的选票都是重要的：

"Voting is a right, it is a right. People need to realize that it is not a privilege. We should come together and just take advantage of this right we have been given and people have worked so hard to give us," said Dungey.

“投票是一个权利。人们需要知道这不是特权。我们一定要充分利用这个权利，这样才不辜负那些为了这个权利做出贡献的人。”

Corion Jones is voting for the first time. He's from the battleground state of Ohio. He feels his vote could help determine the outcome of the election.

科里恩.琼斯将第一次参加投票。他来自摇摆州俄亥俄州。他认为自己的一票有助于决定大选结果：

"Everyone should be able to express what they want or what they feel in their own country, so the opportunity and the ability to vote is highly important," said Jones.

“每个人都应该表达自己的意愿，他们对国家的看法，所以说投票的机会是非常重要的。”

"Just encourage sort of those last few remaining folks we are trying to reach," said Gail Kitch.

Gail Kitch is chief operating officer with the non-partisan Voter Participation⁵ Center in Washington. Her group launched a voter-registration campaign by mail last year targeting young people of color and unmarried women.

盖尔.凯奇是华盛顿非党派的选民登记中心(Voter Participation Center)的首席营运官。这个机构去年以寄信的方式向年轻人和单身妇女发起了一场登记注册运动。

"The young person is sort of primed to think they are ready to participate now, and this kind of a document mailed straight to them is exactly the kind of thing they are going to respond to," she said.

她说：“年轻人现在已经做好了参与的准备，我们把这些文件寄给他们，他们一定会有所反应。”

Now the push is on to make sure newly registered voters actually cast ballots⁶ in November.

登记注册了以后接下来的工作是要说服鼓励他们11月亲身到投票站投下一票。