VOA英语：美国已有400多万人完成总统大选投票
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More Than 4 Million Americans Have Already Voted
美国已有400多万人完成总统大选投票
By Ashley Thompson
09 October 2020
More than 4 million Americans have already voted in the 2020 election, with Election Day still four weeks away. In 2016, only 75,000 people had voted one month before the election.
距2020年美国大选日还有4周时间，已经有4百多万美国人完成了投票。而在2016年大选日的前一个月，只有7.5万人完成投票。
Those numbers come from the U.S. Elections Project, which gathers early voting data.
这些数据出自负责收集早期投票数据的美国选举项目。
Election Day is Tuesday, November 3.
11月3日星期二是美国大选日。
The increase has been driven by an expansion of early and mail-in voting in many states as a safe way to vote during the coronavirus health crisis. It has also been driven by a desire to decide the political future of President Donald Trump, said Michael McDonald of the University of Florida. He leads the U.S. Elections Project.
许多州在新冠病毒健康危机期间将早期投票和邮寄投票扩大为一种安全的投票渠道，从而推动了早期投票人数的增加。佛罗里达大学的迈克尔·麦克唐纳表示，这也受到了一种想要决定川普总统政治前途的意愿的推动。麦克唐纳领导着美国选举项目。
"We've never seen this many people voting so far ahead of an election," McDonald said. "People cast their ballots when they make up their minds, and we know that many people made up their minds long ago and already have a judgment about Trump."
麦克唐纳表示：“我们从来没有看到过这么多人这么早投票。人们做出决定后投出选票，我们知道许多人很早已经做了决定，他们已经对特朗普做出评判。”
The high numbers have led McDonald to predict a record turnout of about 150 million voters. That would be about 65 percent of people able to vote, the highest rate since the 1908 election.
这一高数字使得麦克唐纳预测将会有创纪录的1.5亿左右选民投票。这大约占到合格选民人数的65%，是1908年以来最高的投票率。
Trump, a Republican, is running against Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. National opinion studies have shown Biden leading Trump. But studies in critical battleground states suggest a closer race.
共和党人川普正与民主党人拜登角逐总统宝座。全国民意调查表明拜登领先于川普。但是关键摇摆州的民意调查表明这两人势均力敌。
The numbers reported so far come from 31 states, McDonald said. The numbers will rise quickly as more states begin early in-person voting and report absentee mail-in totals in the next few weeks.
麦克唐纳表示，迄今为止报告的这些数字来自于31个州。随着更多州在接下来几周内开始提前进行现场投票并报告邮寄投票的总数，这一数字还将迅速上升。
All but six states permit some kind of early in-person voting.
除6个州之外的所有州都允许某种形式的提前现场投票。
The total number of early or mail-in votes more than doubled from nearly 25 million in 2004 to 57 million in 2016, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission says.
美国选举援助委员会表示，提前投票或邮寄投票的总数从2004年的2500万增长到2016年的5700万，增长了一倍以上。
Trump has repeatedly criticized mail-in voting, saying it leads to fraud. But experts say voter fraud is rare.
川普一再批评邮寄投票可能会导致欺诈。但是专家表示，投票欺诈是极为罕见的。
Those attacks by the president may have led to lower Republican interest in voting by mail.
川普总统的这些攻击可能会降低共和党人对邮寄投票的兴趣。
A national opinion study carried out last week by Reuters/Ipsos found that 5 percent of Democrats said they had already voted, compared to 2 percent of Republicans. The study also found that about 58 percent of Democrats planned to vote early, compared to 40 percent of Republicans.
路透社/易普索上周进行的一项全国民意调查发现，有5%的民主党人表示已经投票，相比之下共和党人只有2%。该研究还发现，约58%的民主党人计划提前投票，而共和党人则为40%。
McDonald said early voting usually starts strong, then drops before rising again just ahead of the election. But in some states, the rates of early voting have been huge -- with one month still to go.
麦克唐纳表示，提前投票通常开始时势头强劲，然后下降，接着在选举前夕再度飙升。但是某些州提前投票率在大选一个月前就很高。
In South Dakota, early voting has already reached nearly 23 percent of the total turnout in 2016. It is nearly 17 percent of total 2016 turnout in Virginia and nearly 15 percent of total 2016 turnout in the battleground state of Wisconsin.
在南达科他州，2016年提前投票数达到了总投票数的近23%。弗吉尼亚州在2016年达到了总票数的近17%，而摇摆州威斯康辛州在2016年达到了总票数的近15%。
"That's just nuts," McDonald said. "Every piece of data suggests very high turnout for this election. I think that's just a given."
麦克唐纳表示：“那真是疯狂。每项数据都表明这次大选投票率很高。我认为这是既定事实。”
I'm Ashley Thompson.
我是阿什利·汤普森。
Words in This Story
cast - v. to make (a vote) formally
battleground state - n. a US state where the two major political parties have similar levels of support among voters
absentee (ballot) - n. a vote that is submitted before an election by a voter who is not able to be present when the election occurs
fraud - n. the crime of using dishonest methods to take something valuable from another person
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