47个州允许所有选民提前投票——另外三个州呢？本周我将走进康涅狄格州的投票站提前投票。不是因为我赶时间，而是因为选举日当天我将在国外，而我的州为我留出了空间，让我的声音依然能被听到。这就是民主扩展时的样子。它走到人们所在的地方去。
47 states allow early voting for all — what about the other three? This week I will walk into my polling place in Connecticut and cast my ballot early. Not because I am in a hurry, but because I will be out of the country on Election Day, and my state has made room for me to be heard anyway. That is what democracy looks like when it expands. It meets people where they are.
目前有47个州和哥伦比亚特区允许每一位选民提前投票，无需任何理由。有三个州不允许：阿拉巴马州、密西西比州和新罕布什尔州。请你在这个名单上停留片刻。
Forty-seven states and the District of Columbia now let every voter cast a ballot early, no excuse required. Three do not: Alabama, Mississippi and New Hampshire. I ask you to sit with that list for a moment.
制宪者把选举的“时间、地点和方式”留给了各州。近两个半世纪之后，这一设计仍然意味着你能否投票取决于你住在哪里。
The framers left the “Times, Places and Manner” of elections to the states. Nearly two and a half centuries later, that design still means your access to the ballot depends on where you live.
新罕布什尔州自豪地举办全国首场总统初选。每四年，全国的目光都会转向这个花岗岩州，开始挑选总统。然而，这个在挑选领导人上走在最前面的州，却是最晚允许每一位选民提前投票的州之一。在镜头前排第一。在选民面前排最后。然后是阿拉巴马州。
New Hampshire proudly holds the first presidential primary in the nation. Every four years, the country turns its eyes to the Granite State to begin choosing a president. Yet the state that goes first in picking our leaders is among the last to let every voter cast a ballot early. First in line for the cameras. Last in line for the voters. And then there is Alabama.
6月2日，最高法院以六比三裁定，允许阿拉巴马州在下个月的选举中使用其2023年的国会选区地图。一家下级联邦法院此前认定，该地图通过取消该州两个黑人占多数的国会选区之一，对黑人选民构成歧视。这一裁决紧随最高法院今年春天在“路易斯安那州诉卡莱斯案”中的判决，该判决缩小了《投票权法》第二条的适用范围——而这一条款正是美国人几十年来赖以挑战削弱黑人选民权力的选区地图的工具。
On June 2, the Supreme Court voted six to three to let Alabama use its 2023 congressional map in next month’s election. A lower federal court had found that map discriminated against Black voters, by eliminating one of the state’s two majority-Black congressional districts. The ruling followed the court’s decision this spring in Louisiana v. Callais, which narrowed Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the very tool Americans have relied on for decades to challenge maps that dilute the power of Black voters.
已故国会议员约翰·刘易斯1965年在阿拉巴马州塞尔马为争取投票权而遭到殴打。他曾说：“投票权是宝贵的。它近乎神圣。它是我们在民主制度中拥有的最强大的非暴力工具。”密西西比州也感受到了余波。2025年，联邦法院命令该州重新划定立法选区，让黑人选民有公平的机会选出自己心仪的候选人。如今，在卡拉伊斯案之后，这些来之不易的选区再次受到质疑，州领导人正在权衡是否要在2027年选举前再次重新划定。
The late Congressman John Lewis, who in 1965 was beaten in Selma, Ala., fighting for the right to vote, once said, “The vote is precious. It is almost sacred. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democracy.”Mississippi, too, is feeling the fallout. In 2025, a federal court ordered the state to redraw its legislative maps to give Black voters a fair chance to elect candidates of their choice. Now, after Callais, those hard-won districts are back in question, and state leaders are weighing whether to redraw them again before the 2027 elections.
这就是其中的规律。在三个拒绝向所有公民提供提前投票的州中，有两个州的公平代表权之争最为激烈。可投票的天数更少。黑人选民能够选出自己心仪候选人的选区更少。这不是民主的扩张。而是民主的收缩。
So here is the pattern. In two of the three states that refuse early voting to all their citizens, the fight over who gets fair representation is fiercest. Fewer days to vote. Fewer districts where Black voters can elect a candidate of their choice. That is not an expansion of democracy. It is a contraction.
范妮·卢·哈默是密西西比州的一名佃农，曾在参加选民登记讲习班后的第二年遭到警察殴打。1964年，她告诉全美国，她“受够了这种受够了的滋味”。62年后，就在她的家乡州，选民们仍然不能在没有任何理由的情况下提前走进投票站投出选票。
In 1964, Fannie Lou Hamer, a sharecropper from Mississippi who had been beaten by police the year after attending a voter registration workshop, told the nation she was “sick and tired of being sick and tired.”Sixty-two years later, in her own state, voters still cannot walk in early and cast a ballot without an excuse.
有人会说，提前投票是一种便利，而非一项权利。我的回答是：投票权的强弱取决于行使它的能力。单是一个星期二，对值双班的护士、无法丢下父母独自一人的看护者、军人、轮班工人，以及选举日当天将身处大洋彼岸的女性来说，是行不通的。提前投票不会改变谁有资格投票，而是改变谁能够投票。
Some will say early voting is a convenience, not a right. I would answer this way: The right to vote is only as strong as the ability to exercise it. A single Tuesday does not work for the nurse on a double shift, the caregiver who cannot leave a parent alone, the soldier, the shift worker, or the woman who will be on the other side of the ocean on Election Day. Early voting does not change who is eligible. It changes who is able.
美国人正在使用提前投票。已有超过1800万张选票通过邮寄或亲自前往的方式提前投出，这一数字每天都在增长。在卡拉伊斯案发源地路易斯安那州，黑人提前投票率创下近年来的最高纪录。而在阿拉巴马州和密西西比州，没有提前投票可供统计。那里的选民仍在等待星期二的到来。选票是那扇门。我们的责任是让它敞开，并将其打得更宽。
And Americans are using it. More than 18 million ballots have already been cast early, by mail or in person, and the count grows every day. In Louisiana, where Callais began, Black early turnout is its highest in recent history. In Alabama and Mississippi, there is no early vote to count. Their voters are still waiting for Tuesday. The ballot is the door. Our job is to keep it open and open it wider.
四十七个州已选择给予选民更多时间，以示信任。剩下的三个州也应跟进。在美国建国250周年之际，问题不在于选票箱是否敞开，而在于为谁敞开，以及敞开多久。
Forty-seven states have chosen to trust their voters with more time. The remaining three should join them. In America’s 250th year, the question is not whether the ballot box is open. It is for whom, and for how long.
中期选举不足一周即将到来。如果你所在的州提供提前投票，请务必使用。如果没有，请向你的领导人讨个说法。
The midterms are less than a week away. If your state offers early voting, use it. If it does not, demand answers from your leaders.
当我登机时，我的选票早已投出。我将随身携带一个朴素的信念：在民主制度中，通往选票箱的大门，永远不应比它所服务的人民更窄。
When I board my flight, my ballot will already be cast. I will carry a simple belief with me: In a democracy, the door to the ballot box should never be narrower than the people it was built for.
伊冯·勒内·戴维斯，理学硕士、文学硕士、专业咨询师，是DAVISIntelligence的创始人、总裁兼首席执行官，该公司是一家战略传播与危机咨询公司。她曾在小布什总统任内担任总统委任职务，并曾任美国国务院传播培训师，工作足迹遍布68个国家和三届总统政府。
Yvonne Renée Davis, MS, MA, PC, is founder, president and CEO of DAVISIntelligence, a strategic communications and crisis advisory firm. A former presidential appointee under President George W. Bush and U.S. Department of State communications trainer, she has worked across 68 countries and three presidential administrations.