每日英語 #118: Recent Election Controversies

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Recent Election Controversies

The 2000 presidential election in Florida was highly “controversial” (with many strong opinions for and against something). The “ballots” (pieces of paper that have each person’s vote) had to be counted and re-counted many times, and the final “outcome” (results of the election) wasn’t known for more than one month.

2000年佛羅里達州的總統選舉引起了極大的爭議（controversial），選票被多次重新計算，選舉結果延遲了一個多月才揭曉。

The “margin” (the difference in the number of votes between the first and second candidates) was very small, so the state decided to re-count the ballots “manually” (without using machines). The manual re-count found many mistakes in the way that the ballots were counted the first time.

由於兩位候選人的得票差距（margin）極小，州政府決定手動（manually）重新計算選票，並在過程中發現許多第一次計票的錯誤。

One “county” (a geographic area) in Florida used “butterfly ballots” where a page appeared on each side of the marks that people were supposed to show their selection of a “candidate” (a person who is running for a political office). Many people were confused by the butterfly ballots and accidentally marked the wrong candidate’s name.

佛羅里達州的一個縣（county）使用了蝴蝶選票（butterfly ballots），選票在兩面都有候選人的選項，導致許多人感到困惑，意外地選錯了候選人。

“Hanging chads” were another problem with the ballots in Florida. A “chad” is the small piece of paper that is made when a hole is punched in a piece of paper. Normally the chad should separate from the ballot. However, sometimes one side of the chad remains connected to the ballot, and this is known as a “hanging chad.” A “dimpled chad” is a chad that remains connected to the ballot on all four sides, but one can see that a person tried to punch it out of the paper. There was a lot of controversy about whether and how hanging chads and dimpled chads should be counted.

懸掛碎紙（hanging chads）是另一個問題。碎紙（chad）是當人們在紙上打孔時產生的小紙片，通常碎紙會完全脫落，但有時會部分連在選票上，這就是懸掛碎紙。壓痕碎紙（dimpled chad）則是四邊都連著選票，但可以看出有人試圖將其打出。這引發了許多關於這些選票應該如何計算的爭議。

After all of these problems in Florida, many people “called for” (demanded) election “reform” (changes to make something better), but the problems still have not been solved completely.

經歷了這些問題之後，許多人呼籲（called for）進行選舉改革（reform），但問題尚未完全解決。

重要單字

• 1. controversial /ˌkɒn.trəˈvɜː.ʃəl/ — 爭議性的
• 2. ballot /ˈbæl.ət/ — 選票
• 3. outcome /ˈaʊt.kʌm/ — 結果
• 4. margin /ˈmɑːr.dʒɪn/ — 差距
• 5. manually /ˈmæn.ju.əli/ — 手動