美国国家公共电台 NPR--All in all, the elections seem to have gone smoothly with little disturbances

All in all, the elections seem to have gone smoothly¹ with little disturbances²

Transcript³

NPR's Rachel Martin talks to former Federal Election Commission chief Trevor Potter about the 2022 midterm election results.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

We just heard Doug Jones talk about the money expected to flood into a possible runoff in the Georgia Senate race. That's something Trevor Potter thinks about a lot. He is a Republican former chair of the Federal Election Commission. He's also the founder⁴ and president of the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center. Thanks so much for being with us.

TREVOR POTTER: Thanks. Good morning.

MARTIN: I'm going to talk to you about the money in a second. But let's just talk about the actual voting. Elections seemed to have gone pretty smoothly this midterms. Was there anything that gave you pause?

POTTER: Well, and that was given - all the concerns about potential demonstrations⁵ or violence at the polls and the hyper-attention to how everything would be conducted. That was a very happy outcome yesterday. There were some isolated⁶ incidents, as there always are, of, you know, machines not doing what they're supposed to because of software questions that can be corrected, running out of paper ballots⁷, things like that. But in a country with almost a million election workers and the tens of thousands of polling places we have, it appears to have been a pretty smooth election. Although, of course, we still have the counting process ahead of us in many states.

MARTIN: Let's talk about the money, so much money. I mean, more than $9 billion is expected to have been spent overall in these midterms. In Pennsylvania, TV ads topped 241 million. In Georgia, TV ads, $258 million. Given all that, have you seen any campaign finance irregularities in this election season?

POTTER: Well, the biggest one just staring us in the face that no one talks about is that the McCain-Feingold reform law of 20 years ago was supposed to prevent members of Congress from raising large sums of unregulated money, of unlimited⁸ money. And yet, we see super PACs, political groups associated with both leaders of both parties, out there raising literally⁹ hundreds of millions of dollars for groups that the press always refers to as the McConnell super PAC or the Schumer PAC...

MARTIN: We just have...

POTTER: ...And spending it in these races.

MARTIN: We just have a few seconds. How do you change that? How do you fix things before the presidential election?

POTTER: Well, we need to continue to strengthen the Federal Election Commission. It needs to enforce the law. Groups like mine, the Campaign Legal Center, sue them regularly when they're not enforcing the law because disclosure is an important part of this.

MARTIN: Yeah.

POTTER: And limits on what members of Congress do to raise this outside money is important. Plus, we saw just waves of secret money spent in these elections...

MARTIN: Yeah.

POTTER: ...By groups that don't report their donors¹⁰ at all.

MARTIN: An important thing to follow-up on. We appreciate your time. Former FEC chairman Trevor Potter. Thank you.

POTTER: Thank you.

1 smoothly   

adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• Just change one or two words and the sentence will read smoothly.这句话只要动一两个字就顺了。

2 disturbances   

n.骚乱( disturbance的名词复数 )；打扰；困扰；障碍

参考例句：

• The government has set up a commission of inquiry into the disturbances at the prison. 政府成立了一个委员会来调查监狱骚乱事件。
• Extra police were called in to quell the disturbances. 已调集了增援警力来平定骚乱。

3 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

4 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

5 demonstrations   

证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威

参考例句：

• Lectures will be interspersed with practical demonstrations. 讲课中将不时插入实际示范。
• The new military government has banned strikes and demonstrations. 新的军人政府禁止罢工和示威活动。

6 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

7 ballots   

n.投票表决( ballot的名词复数 )；选举；选票；投票总数v.（使）投票表决( ballot的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• They're counting the ballots. 他们正在计算选票。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The news of rigged ballots has rubbed off much of the shine of their election victory. 他们操纵选票的消息使他们在选举中获得的胜利大为减色。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 unlimited   

adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的

参考例句：

• They flew over the unlimited reaches of the Arctic.他们飞过了茫茫无边的北极上空。
• There is no safety in unlimited technological hubris.在技术方面自以为是会很危险。

9 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

10 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》