Thank you very much, Mr. President; Ladies and Gentlemen of the Senate: 非常感谢，议长先生；参议院的女士们、先生们：
I have to say that I didn't anticipate speaking today, but the importance, I think, of this issue is one in which I feel it's important for me to address this body. 我必须说，我原本没有打算今天发言，但我认为这个问题非常重要，因此觉得有必要在参议院发表看法。
You know, during the election I had the occasion of meeting a woman who had supported me in my campaign. And she decided to come to shake my hand and take a photograph. A wonderful woman, she wasn't asking for anything, and I was very grateful that she took time to come by. It was a[n] unexceptional moment except for the fact that she was born in 1894. And her name was Marguerite Lewis, an African-American woman who had been born in Louisiana, born in the shadow of slavery, born at a time when lynchings were commonplace, born at a time when African-Americans and women could not vote. 大家知道，在竞选期间，我曾遇到一位支持我竞选的女士。她特意前来与我握手并合影。她是一位可敬的女士，没有提出任何要求，而我非常感谢她抽时间前来。这原本只是一个平常的时刻，特别之处在于她出生于1894年。她叫玛格丽特·刘易斯，是一位出生在路易斯安那州的非裔美国女性；她生于奴隶制阴影尚存的年代，生于私刑司空见惯的年代，也生于非裔美国人与女性都没有选举权的年代。
And yet, over the course of decades she had participated in broadening our democracy and ensuring that, in fact, at some point, if not herself, then her children and her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren would be in a position in which they could, too, call themselves citizens of the United States and make certain that this Government works not just on behalf of the mighty and the powerful but also on behalf of people like her. 然而，几十年来，她参与推动了美国民主的拓展，并努力确保即使她本人未能等到那一天，她的子女、孙辈和曾孙辈终有一天也能自称为美国公民，并确保这个政府不仅为强者和权势者服务，也为像她这样的人服务。
And so the fact that she voted and that her vote was counted in this election was of supreme importance to her and it is the memory of talking to her and shaking her hand that causes me to rise on this occasion. 因此，她能够在这次选举中投票，而且她的选票得到统计，对她而言意义无比重大。正是与她交谈、同她握手的记忆，促使我今天站起来发言。
I am absolutely convinced that the President of the United States, George Bush, won this election. I also believe that he got more votes in Ohio. I think, as has already been said by some of the speakers in this body, he is not some -- this is not an issue in which we are challenging the outcome of the election. And I think it's important for us to separate out the issue of the election outcome with the election process. 我完全相信，美国总统乔治·布什赢得了这次选举。我也相信他在俄亥俄州获得了更多选票。正如参议院一些发言者已经指出的，他不是那种——这并不是要质疑选举结果。我认为，我们必须把选举结果问题与选举程序问题区分开来。
I was not in this body four years ago, but what I observed as a voter, as a citizen of Illinois four years ago, were troubling evidence of the fact that not every vote was being counted. And I think that it is unfortunate four years later that we continue to see circumstances in which people who believe that they have the right to vote -- who show up at the polls -- still continue to confront the sort of problems that have been documented as taking place, not just in Ohio, but [in] places all across the country. 四年前我还不是参议员，但作为一名选民和伊利诺伊州公民，我当时看到的情况令人不安，表明并非每一张选票都得到了统计。遗憾的是，四年后的今天，我们仍然看到这样的情形：那些相信自己拥有选举权并来到投票站的人，依然遭遇已有记录的种种问题。这些问题不仅发生在俄亥俄州，也发生在全国各地。
I would strongly urge that this Chamber, as well as the House of Representatives, take it upon itself once and for all to reform this system. There is no reason, at a time when we have enormous battles taking place ideologically all across the globe, at a time when we're try to make certain that we encourage democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places throughout the world, 我强烈敦促参议院和众议院承担起责任，彻底改革这一制度。当前，世界各地正发生激烈的意识形态较量；我们正在努力推动伊拉克、阿富汗以及世界其他地区的民主。
that we have the legitimacy of our elections challenged, rightly or wrongly, by people who are not certain as to whether our processes are fair and just. This is something that we can fix. We have experts on both sides of the aisle who know how to fix it. What we've lacked is the political will. 在这种时候，我们没有理由让一些不确定美国选举程序是否公平公正的人，无论有理还是无理，质疑我们选举的正当性。这是一个能够解决的问题。两党都有知道如何解决问题的专家，我们缺少的只是政治意愿。
I would strongly urge that, in a circumstance in which too many voters have stood in long lines for hours, in which too many voters have cast votes on machines that jam or malfunction or suck the votes without a trace, 我强烈敦促大家正视这样的情况：太多选民不得不排上几个小时的长队；太多选民使用的投票机发生卡顿、故障，甚至让选票消失得无影无踪；
in which too many voters try to register to vote only to discover that their names don't appear on the roles, or that partisan political interests and those that serve them have worked hard to throw up every barrier to recognize them as lawful, in which too many voters will know that there are different elections for different parts of the country and that these differences turn shamefully on differences of wealth or of race, 太多选民试图登记投票，却发现名册上没有自己的名字，或发现党派政治势力及其追随者竭力设置重重障碍，不承认他们是合法选民；太多选民知道，美国不同地区实际面对着不同的选举条件，而这些差异竟可耻地取决于财富和种族；
in which too many voters have to contend with state officials, servants of the public, who put partisan or personal political interests ahead of the public in administering our elections—in such circumstances, we have an obligation to fix the problem. 太多选民还不得不面对负责管理选举的州政府官员——这些人民公仆把党派或个人政治利益置于公众利益之上。面对这些情况，我们有义务解决问题。
And I have to add that this is not a problem unique to this election, and it is not a partisan problem. Keep in mind, I come from Cook County, from Chicago, in which there is a long record of these kinds of problems taking place and disadvantaging Republicans as well as Democrats. So I would ask that all of us rise up and use this occasion— 我还必须补充一点：这并非本次选举独有的问题，也不是一个党派问题。请记住，我来自芝加哥所在的库克县，那里长期存在这类问题，共和党人和民主党人都曾因此处于不利地位。因此，我请求我们所有人都站出来，利用这个机会——
Senate President: Senator's time has expired. 参议院议长：参议员的发言时间已经结束。
Senator Obama: -- to amend this problem. Thank you. 奥巴马参议员：——解决这个问题。谢谢。