纽约时报 爱荷华州的民主党初选风波(5)

In November, Iowa officials gathered in Des Moines with Harvard election security experts including Robby Mook,

11月，爱荷华官员在得梅因与罗比·穆克，希拉里·克林顿2016年大选选举经理，等来自哈佛大学的选举安全专家，

Mrs. Clinton's 2016 campaign manager, to test processes involved in the caucuses².

一同测试了投票的各个环节。

But the app wasn't part of the exercise.

然而，该软件并未在测试项目之内。

Still, Shadow developed an initial version of the app that month and began testing and updating it,

尽管如此，影子公司依然在当月开发出了软件的初始版本，随后便开始了软件的测试升级，

according to a person involved in the effort.

据参与了该软件开发的一位知情人士透露。

As the caucus¹ date approached, more updates came, but the developers didn't regard them as critical.

随着投票日期临近，软件的更新幅度也在增加，但开发人员并未对更新内容予以足够重视。

The weekend before the caucuses, officials from Shadow, the state party and the D.N.C. gathered to run final tests.

投票开始前的那个周末，影子公司的官员，民主党地方党委和全国委员会一起做了软件的最后一轮测试。

They fed in false data to verify that the quality-control system would catch anything amiss.

为了验证软件的质量控制系统不会遗漏任何错误，他们蓄意输入了错误的数据。

The app worked well, according to a person involved.

结果软件运行良好，据一位相关人士透露。

But no evidence arose of a bug³ that would jumble⁴ a portion of the results on caucus night.

然而，会在投票之夜扰乱部分投票的漏洞当晚没有露出任何蛛丝马迹。

The Sunday before the caucuses, Mr. Price kept up a busy schedule.

投票前的周日，普莱斯的日程依然安排得十分紧凑。

He taped an interview with Kasie Hunt of MSNBC in the early afternoon.

下午早些时候，他与微软全国广播公司（msnbc）的凯西·亨特录制了一期采访节目。

He posed for a photo on the Fox News set with Donna Brazile, a former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.

又去了《福克斯新闻》的片场与民主党全国委员会前主席唐娜·布拉西尔合影留念。

In the evening, he was at a Super Bowl party with Senator Amy Klobuchar.

当晚，他还与参议员艾米·克洛布查尔出现在了超级碗的派对上。

Yet in Polk County, where Democrats⁵ were preparing for 177 precinct caucuses,

然而，民主党在波尔克郡为177个选区的投票工作做准备的一周里，

it had already been clear all week that the app had problems.

就已经有清楚的迹象表明投票软件有问题。

When precinct chairs reported issues,

选区主席向州党委汇报了这一情况，

the state party referred them to a lone⁶ help-desk employee, who did not always respond to calls and emails.

后者却让他们去找服务台的唯一一名工作人员，尽管后者并非每个电话都接，每封邮件都回。

Six hours before the caucuses were to start at 7 p.m. Monday,

距离周一晚7点投票开始的6个小时前，

precinct leaders received a final email about the app with an ominous⁷ instruction:

选区负责人才收到有关软件的最后一封邮件，邮件中还附带了一条有些不妙的提示：

"If the app stalls/freezes/locks up: Close out of the app and log back in with your PIN.

“如果软件出现卡顿/停止运行/锁定等问题，可退出软件使用密码重新登陆。

The app should save where you were.

软件将保存之前所在页面。

If it does not, please call in your results."

如果没有，请致电说明。”

Most precinct caucuses ran smoothly⁸ across the state.

整个州大多数选区的投票环节进展都算顺利。

But when some precinct leaders tried to report the results, the app sometimes froze.

但有些选区领导报告投票结果时有时会出现软件中途停止运行的情况。

Calls to the state party hotline sometimes languished⁹ on hold for five hours.

打给州党委客服的电话有时会被搁置足足五个小时。

To relieve pressure on the state party,

为减轻州党委的压力，

D.N.C. officials executed a contingency¹⁰ plan created for natural disasters or terror events:

DNC官员启动了原本为自然灾害或恐怖事件制定的应急计划：

using a backup call center at the party's headquarters on South Capitol Street in Washington, where about 40 people began taking calls.

启用该党总部位于华盛顿南国会街的的备用客服中心。随即，大约40名客服开始接听爱荷华州的电话。

By then, it was clear that a catastrophe¹¹ was taking place at the Iowa Events Center,

充当此次投票中心的是原本用于举办车展及州摔跤锦标赛的爱荷华州活动中心，

a venue¹² for auto¹³ shows and state wrestling tournaments that was serving as caucus central.

截至当时，形势已经很明朗：该中心已经陷入了一场灾难。

1 caucus   

n.秘密会议；干部会议；v.（参加）干部开会议

参考例句：

• This multi-staged caucus takes several months.这个多级会议常常历时好几个月。
• It kept the Democratic caucus from fragmenting.它也使得民主党的核心小组避免了土崩瓦解的危险。

2 caucuses   

n.（政党决定政策或推举竞选人的）核心成员( caucus的名词复数 )；决策干部；决策委员会；秘密会议

参考例句：

• Republican caucuses will happen in about 410 towns across Maine. 共和党团会议选举将在缅因州的约410个城镇进行。 来自互联网

3 bug   

n.虫子；故障；窃听器；vt.纠缠；装窃听器

参考例句：

• There is a bug in the system.系统出了故障。
• The bird caught a bug on the fly.那鸟在飞行中捉住了一只昆虫。

4 jumble   

vt.使混乱，混杂；n.混乱；杂乱的一堆

参考例句：

• Even the furniture remained the same jumble that it had always been.甚至家具还是象过去一样杂乱无章。
• The things in the drawer were all in a jumble.抽屉里的东西很杂乱。

5 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 lone   

adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的

参考例句：

• A lone sea gull flew across the sky.一只孤独的海鸥在空中飞过。
• She could see a lone figure on the deserted beach.她在空旷的海滩上能看到一个孤独的身影。

7 ominous   

adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的

参考例句：

• Those black clouds look ominous for our picnic.那些乌云对我们的野餐来说是个不祥之兆。
• There was an ominous silence at the other end of the phone.电话那头出现了不祥的沉默。

8 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。

9 languished   

长期受苦( languish的过去式和过去分词 )； 受折磨； 变得（越来越）衰弱； 因渴望而变得憔悴或闷闷不乐

参考例句：

• Our project languished during the holidays. 我们的计划在假期间推动得松懈了。
• He languished after his dog died. 他狗死之后，人憔悴了。

10 contingency   

n.意外事件，可能性

参考例句：

• We should be prepared for any contingency.我们应该对任何应急情况有所准备。
• A fire in our warehouse was a contingency that we had not expected.库房的一场大火是我们始料未及的。

11 catastrophe   

n.大灾难，大祸

参考例句：

• I owe it to you that I survived the catastrophe.亏得你我才大难不死。
• This is a catastrophe beyond human control.这是一场人类无法控制的灾难。

12 venue   

n.犯罪地点，审判地，管辖地，发生地点，集合地点

参考例句：

• The hall provided a venue for weddings and other functions.大厅给婚礼和其他社会活动提供了场所。
• The chosen venue caused great controversy among the people.人们就审判地点的问题产生了极大的争议。

13 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。