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Bad app was just a link in Iowa's Chain of Failure
糟糕的軟件不過是愛荷華州一系列失敗中的一環(huán)
By Reid J. Epstein, Sydney Ember, Trip Gabriel and Mike Baker
文/里德·J.愛潑斯坦，悉尼·恩伯，特里普·加布里爾，邁克·貝克爾
The first signs of trouble came early.
麻煩的第一輪征兆很早就出現(xiàn)了。
As the smartphone app for reporting the results of the Iowa Democratic caucuses began failing last Monday night,
上周一晚，用于報告愛荷華州民主黨總統(tǒng)初選結(jié)果的手機(jī)軟件出現(xiàn)故障后，
party officials instructed precinct leaders to move to Plan B:
該黨官員便指示選區(qū)帶頭人啟動備選方案：
calling the results into caucus headquarters,
將初選結(jié)果收入選舉總部，
where dozens of volunteers would enter the figures into a secure system.
那里的數(shù)十名志愿者可將數(shù)據(jù)存入一個安全的系統(tǒng)。
But when many of those volunteers tried to log on to their computers, they made an unsettling discovery.
然而，就在多名志愿者嘗試登陸他們的電腦時，一個令人不安的畫面映入了他們的眼簾：
They needed smartphones to retrieve a code,
需要智能手機(jī)獲取驗證碼。
but they had been told not to bring their phones into the “boiler room” in Des Moines.
問題是，他們已經(jīng)被告知不能將手機(jī)帶入得梅因的“鍋爐房”（即核心辦公室）。
As a torrent of results were phoned in from school gymnasiums,
投票結(jié)果從學(xué)校體育館，工會大堂等各類聚集場所——
union halls and the myriad other gathering places that made the Iowa caucuses a world-famous model of democracy,
正是這些場所使得愛荷華州成為了舉世聞名的民主典范——鋪天蓋地而來，
it soon became clear that the whole process was melting down.
很快，事實便已浮出水面：愛德華州這次的選舉程序整個崩潰了。
Volunteers resorted to passing around a spare iPad to log into the system.
志愿者們只能靠傳用一臺備用iPad登陸系統(tǒng)。
Melissa Watson, the state party’s chief financial officer, who was in charge of the boiler room,
民主黨官員后來承認(rèn)，負(fù)責(zé)該鍋爐房的民主黨CFO梅麗莎·沃森
did not know how to operate a Google spreadsheet application used to input data, Democratic officials later acknowledged.
甚至都不懂如何操作此次被用來輸入數(shù)據(jù)的谷歌表格軟件。
Others, desperate to verify results, began telling some precinct leaders to email photographs of their worksheets —
其他人則已迫不及待地想要核實投票結(jié)果，他們告訴部分選區(qū)帶頭人，可將他們的表格——也即用以統(tǒng)計投票結(jié)果的那張紙——拍照，
the paper forms used to tally results — to a dedicated email address.
并以郵件的方式發(fā)送到一個專用的接收地址。
But for hours, no one monitored the inbox.
然而，幾個小時的時間里沒有一個人留意那個收件箱。
When it was finally opened Tuesday morning,
周二早晨他們終于打開那個收件箱時，
there were 700 unread emails waiting, with photos that had been sent sideways;
里面已經(jīng)收到了700封未讀郵件，附帶著一張又一張橫屏照片；
volunteers had to crane their necks to decipher the handwritten forms.
為了破譯那些手寫的表格，志愿者們不得不把脖子伸得老長。
An hour after the caucuses began, the Iowa Democratic Party chairman, Troy Price,
投票進(jìn)行一個小時后，該州民主黨主席特洛伊·普萊斯
huddled in another room with other officials,
和其他官員擠進(jìn)了另一個房間，
none of them with a clear strategy to manage the unfolding chaos
卻沒有一個人能提出一個明確的方案，能收拾當(dāng)前的混亂局面，
or answers to share with increasingly exasperated presidential campaigns.
也沒有一個人能提出可供日益惱火的總統(tǒng)大選借鑒的答案。
A conference call with the campaigns ended with Mr. Price hanging up on them,
幾十年來，愛荷華州上報的恐怕一直都是錯誤的投票結(jié)果，在這樣的一片指責(zé)聲中，
amid accusations that caucus results in Iowa may have been incorrectly reported for decades.
與競選團(tuán)隊的電話會議以普萊斯的主動掛斷草草收場。
As disastrous as the 2020 Iowa caucuses have appeared to the public,
對知情人士的數(shù)十次采訪顯示，盡管在民眾看來，
the failure runs deeper and wider than has previously been known,
2020年愛荷華州的初選經(jīng)歷已經(jīng)頗為慘痛，
according to dozens of interviews with those involved.
然而，此次失敗的影響比大家先前所了解的還要深遠(yuǎn)。
It was a total system breakdown that casts doubt
此次失敗堪稱一次徹頭徹尾的系統(tǒng)崩潰，不禁讓人懷疑，
on how a critical contest on the American political calendar has been managed for years.
多年來，美國政治舞臺上這場至關(guān)重要的較量究竟是如何開展的。
Until now, the main public villain in the Iowa caucus fiasco has been the reporting app,
截至目前，愛荷華州這場初選慘劇的罪魁禍?zhǔn)滓恢笔悄莻€報告投票結(jié)果的軟件，
created by a company called Shadow Inc.,
開發(fā)該軟件的公司名為“影子股份有限公司”（Shadow Inc.）,
along with a “coding issue” in a back-end results reporting system that state party officials blamed for the chaos.
以及被州民主黨官員指責(zé)造成了此次混亂的后端結(jié)果報告系統(tǒng)的“編碼問題”。
But the crackup resulted from cascading failures going back months.
然而，此次系統(tǒng)的崩潰是幾個月的連鎖故障引發(fā)的結(jié)果。
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