奥斯汀（Nexstar）——当选举结束、选票最终统计完毕时，通常会看到选票顶端职位的总投票数略高于底端职位。这被称为“选票滚降”。
AUSTIN (Nexstar) -- When the votes are finally tallied at the end of an election, it's normal to see the total number of votes cast in the races at the top of the ticket are slightly higher compared to the races at the bottom. It's known as voter roll-off.
莱斯大学贝克公共政策研究所政治学研究员马克·琼斯表示，选票滚降通常表现为选票自上而下的递减。
Mark Jones, a fellow in political science at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, said you normally see voter roll-off as a top-down flow on the ballot.
琼斯解释说：“当人们看到选票上较低层级的职位时，往往会停止投票。到了县级职位或地区、县级司法职位时，这种情况通常会变得非常严重，因为他们不认识这些候选人，于是就不再投票。”
"As people get to the lower races on the ballot, they tend to stop voting," Jones explained.
几乎每个人都知道自己选票顶端的职位竞选，包括民主党人詹姆斯·塔拉里科与共和党人肯·帕克斯顿之间的联邦参议员竞选，民主党人吉娜·伊诺霍萨与共和党人格雷格·阿博特之间的州长竞选，以及在某种程度上，民主党人维基·古德温与共和党人丹·帕特里克之间的副州长竞选。
"It gets really bad often when they get to county level offices or judicial offices at the district or county level, because they don't know who these candidates are and they stop voting."
但随着选民开始逐项向下查看全州选票，他们很可能并不认识每一位候选人，例如土地专员、铁路专员甚至总检察长等职位的候选人。
Almost everybody will know the top of the ticket races on their ballot.
有民调可以佐证这一点。休斯顿大学霍比公共事务学院上周发布了一项针对2000名可能投票选民的民调。
Those include the race for U.S. Senate between Democrat James Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton; the gubernatorial race between Democrat Gina Hinojosa and Republican Greg Abbott; and to some extent, the race for Lt. Governor between Democrat Vikki Goodwin and Republican Dan Patrick. But as voters start making their way down the statewide ballot, they will likely not know every candidate running for offices like Land Commissioner, Railroad Commissioner, or even Attorney General.
民调发现，在这些可能投票的选民中，至少有50%对10位全州性候选人了解不足，无法对他们形成负面或正面的看法。
And there are polls to back this up.
内森·约翰逊是民主党州参议员，正在竞选得克萨斯州下一任总检察长。
The University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs released a poll of 2,000 likely voters last week.
民调发现，71%的人对他了解不足，50%的人对他的对手梅斯·米德尔顿了解不足。米德尔顿也是一名州参议员。
The poll found that at least 50% of those likely voters did not know enough about 10 statewide candidates to have a negative or positive opinion about them. Nathan Johnson is a Democratic state senator who is running to be the next Attorney General of Texas.
道恩·白金汉是前共和党州参议员，现任得克萨斯州土地专员，负责监管“孤星之州”约1300万英亩的公共土地。
The poll found that 71% of people did not know enough about him, and 50% did not know enough about his opponent, Mayes Middleton, who is also a state senator.
但民调发现，73%的人对她不够了解，78%的人对她的对手本杰明·弗洛雷斯不够了解。琼斯说，当被问及司法职位时，这一比例会升至80%至90%。这一数字经常高到琼斯和他的团队已经不再询问人们对司法候选人的看法。有些人在不了解候选人的情况下，会选择在选票的某些部分留白，但也有人即使对候选人或其政策知之甚少，仍会在重要职位上投票。
Dawn Buckingham is a former Republican state senator and the current Land Commissioner of Texas who oversees roughly 13 million acres of public land in the Lone Star State. But the poll found 73% of people do not know enough about her, and 78% do not know enough about her opponent, Benjamin Flores. Jones said the numbers jump to the 80%-90% range when people are asked about judicial offices. It's regularly so high that Jones said he and his team have stopped asking people about their opinions on judicial candidates.
琼斯说，这一决定主要基于党派立场。琼斯解释说：“如果一位选民要对土地专员职位投票，却不知道候选人是谁，他们往往会回归自己的党派立场，因为选票上有一项信息，即使他们不认识这些候选人，也知道他们是共和党人、民主党人还是自由意志党人。”
Some people decide to leave areas of the ballot blank when they do not know the candidates, but others will still cast a vote on important positions when they know very little of the candidates or their policies. Jones said the decision is mostly based off partisan politics.
在得克萨斯州过去的选举中，选民弃选并未在决定选举结果方面发挥关键作用。选民弃选通常只会造成1%至2%的选票流失，而过去中期选举的胜选差距要大得多。看看过去两个中期选举周期：但琼斯认为，由于本次选举周期中选票上从上到下各项竞选都非常激烈，选民弃选可能会成为一个影响因素。
"If a voter who gets to say the Office of Land Commissioner and has no idea who the candidates are, they tend to revert to their partisanship because one piece of information that is on the ballot, even if they don't know who these candidates are, is if they are a Republican, a Democrat or a Libertarian," Jones explained. In past elections in Texas, voter roll-off did not play a pivotal role in determining the outcome of the race. Voter roll-off usually accounts for a 1%-2% drop-off in votes, and the margin of victories in past midterm elections were much higher.
琼斯解释说：“在一些低层职位竞选中——尤其是铁路专员一职，我认为它是仅次于美国参议院选举的第二激烈的竞选——你可能会看到弃选成为决定两位候选人胜负的关键因素。”上周的休斯顿大学民调显示，弗伦奇以2个百分点的优势领先罗森塔尔，而该竞选中仍有10%的可能选民尚未决定。琼斯还认为，今年我们可能会看到美国选票顶端职位的投票人数减少。
Take a look at the past two midterm cycles: But Jones believes voter roll-off could be a factor this election cycle because of how competitive the races are up and down the ballot. "It's quite possible in some of the down-ballot races -- say for Railroad Commissioner in particular, which is I think the second most competitive race after the US Senate -- that there you can see roll-off making the difference between victory and defeat for one of the two candidates," Jones explained. The UH poll from last week has French with a 2 point advantage over Rosenthal with still 10% of likely voters undecided in that race.
参议院选举，如果一些共和党选民因不喜欢肯·帕克斯顿而决定不投票。
Jones also believes this year we may see a smaller vote count at the top of the ticket in the U.S. Senate race if some Republican voters decide not to cast a vote because of their dislike for Ken Paxton.