票选问题（1/2）

When we were children, we learned where democracy comes from, how the people came to rule, about the government of the many rather than the government of the few. But what good is that machinery if there is no majority? No one taught us what would happen if there were a tie.

当我们还是孩子的时候，我们就学会了什么是民主，人们怎么履行民主，以及少数服从多数的原则。如果没有绝对的多数，那该怎么办呢？没有人告诉如果出现这种不分胜负的情况，怎么做才是对的。新墨西哥州就出现了这种情况。

New Mexico has worked this out. If the voters deadlock, the law hands the outcome over to a game of chance: the candidates can flip a coin, draw a card from a deck or play a hand of poker--assuming they can agree. Florida law allows for drawing straws. But this tie is elusive, imperfect as the election that produced it because when you are shuffling through 6 million votes and double-punched ballots and hanging chads and missing postmarks and the whole archaeology of human frailty, every count by machine or by hand yields a different result, each so close as to be all but meaningless. So the combat went hand to hand, both men clawing for every last vote. Ballot boxes were wrapped like presents in crime-scene tape; guards protected overseas ballots around the clock; and both sides all but accused each other of trying to steal the election. And so the only thing we know for certain is that our next President will be born in the margin of error.

如果票选僵局形成，法律会对此采取什么变通措施呢？候选人可以抛硬币决定，求神还是赌个牌——如果他们愿意的话。弗罗里达州的法律允许普选。但是这种不完善的选举模式很复杂，这6,000,000张选票可能会产生塞票（将多余的票圈选自己的候选人并投入投票箱——译者注）、重复投票、悬空票（打票机在票上打孔，但票上的纸片没有脱落——译者注）、选票破损、人民意图等干扰因素影响，机器和人工检票的结果全然不同，而即便相同，结果也没有什么意义。因此战争继续，每个人都在为最后的选票拼命。投票箱像犯罪证物一样被严密的看守起来；候选双方都在指责对方“偷窃”了此次选举。而迄今为止，我们能明确的一件事情就是：我们未来的总统会在这个误差的选举里产生。

We live in overtime now, we work overtime, the clock runs out and we keep on playing, which might explain the public's patience with the candidates' choice not to surrender. Americans forgive ambition; we like grit and persistence, treat them as virtues as long as the cause seems just. An old Republican well into his 70s telephoned an even older Democrat last week in Washington. Both men had flirted with the presidency; one had even survived a primary or two. The Republican asked his old friend, Could you do it? If you were this close, could you turn away? The other guy, now past 80, laughed and said, I couldn't, and neither could you.

今天的我们不停的透支生活，工作时常逾时加班，即便如此我们依旧在空闲时消耗自己所剩无几的精力。这就是为什么公众面对候选人僵持问题的耐心是如此坚强。美国人容忍野心；我们喜爱刚强和毅力，用公正的美德来应对所有问题。上周的华盛顿，共和党和民主党的两名元老在互通的电话里依然不依不饶。每个人都窥视着这个总统席位；其中一人已占先机。共和党人问他的老朋友，你还有这个实力吗？如果是这样显而易见的收场，你还有什么面子吗？那个已经年逾八十的老家伙不以为然，他说，我不行的话，你也未见得多好！

And neither could George Bush or Al Gore. It is more our fault than theirs that the race is instant-replay close; neither could be expected to quit while the law lets him think he can win. Bush is a baseball guy; he understands extra innings. But under the rules, he's sure he's the victor; a few foul balls and close calls are just part of the great game. Last week's recounts all put him ahead, even after hundreds of unpostmarked overseas military ballots were thrown out, and the only thing that could change that was a hand recount of three heavily Democratic counties. On what grounds would it have been "grownup" or "statesmanlike" for Bush to have walked off the field?

不论是George Bush还是Al Gore他们都做不到这一点。种种原因，选票需要重计；直到根据法律选择出赢家为止，没人会让步。布什是个棒球男，他熟悉加时赛。根据规定，他已胜券在握；坏球和侥幸的胜利是这场竞赛的华丽片断。上周的复核显示了他的优势，好几百张海外选票可能尚未邮寄回美国，唯一还是让民主党扭转败局的关键是接下来三个民主党大区的选票。怎么样才会让这个已然“成型”并“富有政治家风范”的布什落败呢？

Gore for his part was taught at his prep school to choose the hard right over the easy wrong, which is a good lesson, assuming it's easy to tell those apart. He knows he won the national popular vote, but under the Constitution, that does not matter. He believes he won Florida as well, but his virtual victory slipped through his hands and broke into tiny pieces, which he was desperately trying to paste together by hand and by law. Was Gore just supposed to concede all over again, with Democrats across the land complaining that the only reason he hadn't won was because of botched ballots, undercounted votes and the blind zeal of secretary of state Katherine Harris, co-chair of Florida's Bush campaign? She did everything she could to delay the hand counts that Florida law allows, and then said that since counties had missed their deadline, the results wouldn't count.

如果事情是如此的简单的话，戈尔和他的团队在早期的错误中已经收到教训了。他明确地知道即使自己在总票数上占优，但是根据宪法，这全然不起作用。他也相信自己能够赢得弗罗里达州的胜利，但是仅因为些许票数，这个措手可得的胜利从指尖滑落，不论他做何弥补。是不是戈尔就这样放弃了？而民主党落败的原因就在于那些粗糙的选票、少计算了的票数还是那个布什手下的Katherine Harris搞的鬼？她使尽浑身解数来推延佛罗里达州的票选统计，直到逾期也未能得出结论。