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Courts of Last Resort
終審法院
Tight margins in key swing states trigger litigation
優勢較小的關鍵搖擺州引發訴訟
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."
在選舉日結束后的凌晨時分，各州官員仍在清點主要戰場州的數百萬張郵寄選票和缺席選票，總統選舉的勝負仍然難分伯下。但這并沒有阻止唐納德·特朗普總統在白宮東廳召集支持者，謊稱自己已經獲勝，并承諾將在法庭上質疑未來的選舉結果。“我們會去美國最高法院，”他說。“我們希望所有的投票都停止。我們不希望他們在凌晨4點找到任何選票，把他們加到名單上。”
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.
太陽升起來的時候，特朗普的競選團隊已經有所行動，其高級顧問以正在進行的計票會導致“非法投票”為由，多次提出訴訟。《時代》雜志于11月4日獲取了和支持者的電話錄音，錄音中競選助手預測密歇根州、威斯康星州和賓夕法尼亞州將面臨法律挑戰。當天下午晚些時候，競選團隊要求威斯康星州重新計票，提起訴訟要求停止在密歇根州的計票，同時對計票過程和賓夕法尼亞州的選民身份法發起了另外兩項法律挑戰。此外還提出了一項動議，要求干預美國最高法院關于賓夕法尼亞州投票的現有爭議。
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.
來自兩黨的選舉法專家都反駁了特朗普團隊有關“正在進行的計票出現了問題”的說法。州選舉官員通常需要花費數天時間來完成計票工作。受新冠影響，有9000多萬美國人民要求郵寄選票，人們普遍預計投票將會推遲。約翰·麥凱恩總統競選的前總法律顧問特雷弗·波特表示：“因為某位候選人不想落后于領先的那位候選人就建議我們停止計票，這違反了法律，也違反了我們競選的方式。”
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.
但在賓夕法尼亞州、內華達州和喬治亞州等關鍵戰場州，雙方優勢相對較小，因此一場與選舉相關的訴訟幾乎不可避免。2020年總統競選的結果是否會在法庭上陷入困境已不再是問題，關鍵在于這場法庭之戰將持續多長時間，造成多大影響。
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.
即將到來的火拼才剛顯現苗頭，專家們表示，在未來的幾天里，新案件可能取決于從重新計票到模糊的州法規，再到美國郵政服務是否投遞選票。
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