时代周刊:终审法院(1)（在线收听）

Courts of Last Resort

终审法院

Tight margins in key swing states trigger litigation

优势较小的关键摇摆州引发诉讼

In the wee hours of the morning after election Day, state officials were still tallying millions of mail-in and absentee ballots in key battleground states, and the presidential race remained too close to call. But that didn't stop President Donald Trump from gathering his supporters in the East Room of the White House, falsely asserting he had already won, and promising he would challenge future election results in court. "We'll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court," he said. "We want all voting to stop. We don't want them to find any ballots at 4 o'clock in the morning and add them to the list."

在选举日结束后的凌晨时分，各州官员仍在清点主要战场州的数百万张邮寄选票和缺席选票，总统选举的胜负仍然难分伯下。但这并没有阻止唐纳德·特朗普总统在白宫东厅召集支持者，谎称自己已经获胜，并承诺将在法庭上质疑未来的选举结果。“我们会去美国最高法院，”他说。“我们希望所有的投票都停止。我们不希望他们在凌晨4点找到任何选票，把他们加到名单上。”

By the time the sun had risen, the Trump campaign had taken its cue, with top advisers calling for multiple lawsuits on the grounds that the ongoing vote count would result in tallying "illegally cast ballots." In a recording of a Nov. 4 phone call with supporters obtained by TIME, campaign aides forecast legal challenges in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. By late that afternoon, the campaign had demanded a recount in Wisconsin, filed suit to stop the ballot count in Michigan, and launched two more legal challenges questioning the ballot-counting process and voter-ID laws in Pennsylvania. It also filed a motion to intervene in an existing dispute over Pennsylvania ballots at the U.S. Supreme Court.

太阳升起来的时候，特朗普的竞选团队已经有所行动，其高级顾问以正在进行的计票会导致“非法投票”为由，多次提出诉讼。《时代》杂志于11月4日获取了和支持者的电话录音，录音中竞选助手预测密歇根州、威斯康星州和宾夕法尼亚州将面临法律挑战。当天下午晚些时候，竞选团队要求威斯康星州重新计票，提起诉讼要求停止在密歇根州的计票，同时对计票过程和宾夕法尼亚州的选民身份法发起了另外两项法律挑战。此外还提出了一项动议，要求干预美国最高法院关于宾夕法尼亚州投票的现有争议。

Election-law experts from both sides of the aisle dismissed the Trump team's suggestion that the ongoing vote count was untoward. State election officials routinely take days to finish counting ballots, and with more than 90 million Americans requesting mail-in ballots because of the pandemic, delays were widely expected. "It's contrary to law and the way we run elections to suggest we should stop counting votes because one of the candidates is ahead and doesn't want to fall behind," says Trevor Potter, former general counsel for John McCain's presidential campaigns.

来自两党的选举法专家都反驳了特朗普团队有关“正在进行的计票出现了问题”的说法。州选举官员通常需要花费数天时间来完成计票工作。受新冠影响，有9000多万美国人民要求邮寄选票，人们普遍预计投票将会推迟。约翰·麦凯恩总统竞选的前总法律顾问特雷弗·波特表示：“因为某位候选人不想落后于领先的那位候选人就建议我们停止计票，这违反了法律，也违反了我们竞选的方式。”

But with relatively tight margins in key battleground states, including Pennsylvania, Nevada and Georgia, it was also immediately clear that an onslaught of election-related litigation was all but inevitable. It is no longer a question of whether the results of the 2020 presidential race will end up mired in the courts; it is how long and how consequential that court battle will be.

但在宾夕法尼亚州、内华达州和乔治亚州等关键战场州，双方优势相对较小，因此一场与选举相关的诉讼几乎不可避免。2020年总统竞选的结果是否会在法庭上陷入困境已不再是问题，关键在于这场法庭之战将持续多长时间，造成多大影响。

The contours of the coming fights are only beginning to emerge. Experts say that in coming days, new cases could hinge on anything from recounts to obscure state statutes to whether the U.S. Postal Service delivered ballots.

即将到来的火拼才刚显现苗头，专家们表示，在未来的几天里，新案件可能取决于从重新计票到模糊的州法规，再到美国邮政服务是否投递选票。