仅三票之差。正是这微乎其微的差距，成就了威斯康星州现代政坛上最具影响力的人物之一。
Three votes. That is the margin that helped launch one of the most consequential political careers in modern Wisconsin state government.
2010年9月，27岁的泰勒·奥古斯特作为共和党候选人，参与了威斯康星州众议院一个空缺席位的竞选。当时共有六名候选人参与角逐。投票当晚结果揭晓时，他似乎落败了——亚当·吉布斯以四票的优势暂时领先。随后进行了重新计票。
In September 2010, Tyler August was a 27-year-old candidate running in a six-way Republican primary for an open seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly. When election night ended, it appeared he had lost. Adam Gibbs was reported ahead by four votes. Then came the recount.
最终结果显示，奥古斯特获得了1,760票，而吉布斯得票数为1,757票。
When it was finished, August had won 1,760 votes to Gibbs’ 1,757. Three votes.
仅仅三票而已。在超过7,300张选票中，这差距甚至比大多数厨房餐桌所能容纳的人数还要少。正是这区区三票，决定了胜者与败者。
Out of more than 7,300 cast. Fewer people than fit around most kitchen tables separated winning from losing. August went on to win the general election that November.
同年11月，奥古斯特顺利赢得了大选。十六年后，他如今担任威斯康星州众议院多数党领袖，这一职位堪称州政府中最具实权的位置之一。试想一下：在那三票的差距背后，究竟有多少事情被决定了。
Sixteen years later, he serves as majority leader of the Wisconsin State Assembly, one of the most powerful positions in state government. Think about everything that had to pass through that three-vote doorway first. Every vote he has cast in the legislature. Every bill he has introduced.
他在议会中投下的每一票、提出的每一项议案、参与制定的每一份预算；此后经历的每一次谈判、承担的每一项委员会职责以及做出的每一项领导决策；还有在他任职期间受相关立法影响的每一个威斯康星州家庭、劳动者与企业——如果那次初选结果不同，这一切都不会以同样的方式发生。
Every budget he has helped shape. Every negotiation, committee assignment and leadership decision that came afterward. Every Wisconsin family, worker or business affected by legislation enacted during his time in office.
当我们说“自己的一票无关紧要”时，往往忽略了这一点。我们总把选举想象成规模宏大的事件：数以百万计的选民、数十亿美元的投入、电视广告、民意调查数据、政治顾问、众多候选人以及铺天盖地的政治宣传。面对这一切，一个独自站在投票站里的人似乎渺小得可笑。
None of it happens the same way if that primary ends differently. That is the part we tend to forget when we say our vote "doesn’t matter." We imagine elections as enormous things. Millions of people. Billions of dollars. Television ads, polling averages, consultants, candidates and endless political noise.
但实际上，选举并非由“全体选民”共同决定，而是由一个个独立的选民、一张张选票共同决定的。
Against all of that, one person standing in a voting booth can feel almost comically insignificant.
我的家乡威斯康星州，便是一个绝佳例证：两种截然不同的结果之间，差距竟可以如此之小。福克斯新闻民调：生活成本担忧在中期选举中对共和党构成压力在2020年总统大选中，超过320万威斯康星州选民投了票。最终差距为20,682票。只有佐治亚州和亚利桑那州的百分比差距更小，他们的总统选举分别以仅11,779票和10,457票决定胜负。
But elections are not actually decided by "the electorate." They are decided by individual people, one ballot at a time. And my home state of Wisconsin offers a remarkable example of just how thin the distance between two outcomes can be. In the 2020 presidential election, more than 3.2 million Wisconsinites cast ballots. The final margin was 20,682 votes. Only Georgia and Arizona had narrower margins by percentage, with their presidential contests decided by just 11,779 and 10,457 votes, respectively.
四年后，超过340万威斯康星州选民投票，总统选举的差距为29,397票，使威斯康星州成为全国按投票百分比计算最接近的州。这些数字听起来很大，直到你将它们与数百万张选票进行比较。然后是泰勒·奥古斯特。三。
Four years later, more than 3.4 million Wisconsinites voted, and the presidential margin was 29,397, making Wisconsin the closest state in the country by percentage of votes cast. Those numbers sound large until you compare them with the millions of ballots cast. Then there is Tyler August. Three.
威斯康星州的经历为全美选民提供了一个教训：任何选举都不应被视为板上钉钉的结果。而其影响远远超出办公室门上会出现哪个名字。金里奇：没有人应该认为这次选举已经结束全国各地的州和地方政府每年都在就税收、法规、住房、许可、教育、基础设施、就业规则和经商成本做出决定。这些决定决定了开店面、雇佣另一名员工、建房、扩大农场或投资社区的难易程度。
Wisconsin's experience offers a lesson for voters across America: No election should be treated as a foregone conclusion. And the consequences stretch far beyond which name appears on an office door. State and local governments across the country make decisions every year about taxes, regulations, housing, licensing, education, infrastructure, employment rules and the cost of doing business. Those decisions determine how easy it is to open a storefront, hire another employee, build a home, expand a farm or invest in a community.
自由企业并不独立于政府政策存在。政府制定的规则塑造了人们冒险、创业和创造机会的环境。这意味着制定这些规则的人很重要。而选择这些人的人也同样重要。
Free enterprise does not exist separately from government policy. The rules government writes shape the environment in which people take risks, build businesses and create opportunity. Which means the people who write those rules matter. And the people who choose them matter too.
投票有时被谈论为个人身份的表达。如今，政治本身也越来越如此。挑选一个队伍，穿上球衣，在网上争论。但选票远比这更实际。
Voting is sometimes talked about as an expression of personal identity. Increasingly, politics itself feels that way. Pick a team, wear the jersey, argue about it online. But a ballot is much more practical than that.
它是少数几个每个公民都能获得完全相同政治权力单位的时刻之一。一人。一票。
It is one of the few moments when every citizen gets the exact same unit of political power. One person. One vote.
拥有40名员工的企业主会得到一张选票。第一次投票的大学生会得到一张选票。连续50年每次选举都投票的退休人员会得到一张选票。
The business owner with 40 employees gets one. The college student voting for the first time gets one. The retiree who has voted in every election for 50 years gets one.
即使是因为天气不好、担心排队时间长、有事情要办，或者认为其他人已经决定了结果而几乎不想出门的人，也会得到一张选票。
So does the person who nearly stays home because the weather is lousy, the line might be long, they have errands to run, or they assume everyone else will decide the outcome anyway.
拥有政治权力与永远没有机会行使它之间的差距，可能只有三个人。
The margin between having political power and never getting the opportunity to exercise it can be three people.
而在美国东南部威斯康星州的某个地方，就有帮助制造这种差距的选民。他们很可能在那天晚上回家时，并没有感到自己特别有力量。但他们确实有。
And somewhere in southeastern Wisconsin are voters who helped create that margin. They probably went home that night without feeling particularly powerful. They were.
2023年11月3日，全国各地的美国人将做出数千个类似这样平凡的选择：早起或继续赖床。在投票站前停留或直接开车经过。寄回不在场投票票或把它留在厨房台面上。
On Nov. 3, Americans across the country will make thousands of similarly unremarkable choices. Get up early or hit snooze. Stop at the polling place or drive past it. Return the absentee ballot or leave it sitting on the kitchen counter.
我们中的大多数人永远不会确切知道，我们的决定到底关系到什么。这就是重点。
Most of us will never know precisely what depended on our decision. That is the point.
民主要求我们在知道自己的一票是否会成为数百万票之一，还是仅仅三票之一之前，就去参与投票。
Democracy asks us to participate before we know whether our vote will be one of the millions or one of the three.
无论你住在威斯康星州还是美国其他地方，第一步是了解何时、在哪里以及如何投票。检查你的登记状态，找到你的投票站，并为11月3日制定计划。选举信息和登记要求可通过你所在州或地方选举办公室获得。
Whether you live in Wisconsin or somewhere else in America, the first step is knowing when, where and how to vote. Check your registration status, find your polling place and make a plan for Nov. 3. Election information and registration requirements are available through your state or local election office.
因此，请为你认为能让你的社区、你的州和你的国家变得更强大的候选人投票。为你希望在州首府和华盛顿得到体现的政策和原则投票。但请去投票。
So, vote for the candidates you believe will make your community, your state and your country stronger. Vote for the policies and principles you want represented in your state capital and Washington. But vote.
因为就在威斯康星州的历史中，有些选民帮助制造了三票的差距，证明“我的一票可能不会有影响”与“改变政府方向”之间的差距，可能微小得几乎不可能。他们可能永远不会知道自己到底是谁。但他们还是来了。
Because somewhere in Wisconsin history are voters who helped create a three-vote margin, proving that the difference between "my vote probably won’t matter" and changing the direction of government can be almost impossibly small. They may never know who they were. They showed up anyway.