每四年，爱荷华州都会对试图获得党内提名的总统候选人发起首轮考验。
Iowa caucuses are gatherings of party member who vote for the presidential candidate they prefer.
爱荷华州初选会议是党员们为自己喜欢的总统候选人投票的集会。
Iowa is important; it is the first such vote in a presidential election year. Results in Iowa can sometimes help predict who will go on to become the nominee. Historically, the party's eventual nominee is usually one of the top three candidates in Iowa.
爱荷华州非常重要，这是总统选举年的第一轮类似投票。爱荷华州的选举结果有时候可以帮助预测日后谁将成为被提名人。从历史上来看，党派的最终提名人通常都是爱荷华州排名前三的候选人之一。
In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the Iowa caucuses. Later that year, she became the Democratic Party's presidential candidate. Among Republicans that year, Donald Trump was among the top three candidates for his party.
2016年，希拉里·克林顿赢得了爱荷华州初选。那年年底，她成为了民主党的总统候选人。当年的共和党人当中，川普是该党排名前三的候选人之一。
On Monday, however, Democratic Party organizers in Iowa faced a problem they never had before. Party workers used a new mobile application (app) to gather vote numbers. The goal of the app was to make it easier to get results from about 1,700 places across the state where voting was taking place. It was supposed to help officials collect information more quickly.
然而在周一，爱荷华州的民主党组织者遇到了前所未有的问题。党内工作人员使用新的手机应用程序收集投票数据。该应用程序的目标是使得获取该州1700个投票点的投票结果更为容易。它本来可以帮助官员更快地收集信息。
Instead, Democratic Party officials say, the app did not work. So, workers had to count paper documents by hand.
民主党官员表示与此相反，这款应用程序无法正常工作。所以，工作人员不得不手工统计纸质文档。
Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Troy Price has noted that hacking was not the cause of the delays.
爱荷华州民主党主席特洛伊·普莱斯指出，延迟的原因并非是因为黑客入侵。
The problems were an embarrassment for the state, which has protected its position as the first state to hold a vote for party presidential candidates.
这个问题使得捍卫其作为第一个对党内总统候选人投票州地位的爱荷华州陷入了尴尬。
Organizers who were operating voting places did not get to test the app before Monday's vote. Iowa party officials had said they would not make the new mobile app available until just before the caucuses to prevent interference.
管理投票点的组织者在周一投票前没能够对这款应用程序进行测试。爱荷华州党内官员曾经表示，他们不会在初选开始前提供这款新的移动应用程序，以防止受到干扰。
But some officials had trouble using the app.
但是一些官员在使用这款应用程序时遇到了麻烦。
Party worker Jonathan Green chaired a voting place in Lone Tree. He said when he tried to put results into the app he got the message: "Unknown protocol."
党内工作人员乔纳森·格林负责Lone Tree的一处投票点。他表示，当他试图把投票结果输入到这款应用程序时，他收到了“未知协议”的错误信息。
The delay was made worse because the party was seeking to report different sets of data. It included the first total of votes and a second total after voters had the chance to change their votes.
由于该党试图报告不同的数据集，这使得延迟变得更加严重。这些数据包括第一轮投票总数以及在选民有机会更改选票之后的第二轮投票总数。
Later Tuesday, Democratic Party officials released results showing Independent Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, and former Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg with nearly equal support.
民主党官员周二晚上发布的结果显示，佛蒙特州独立参议员伯尼·桑德斯和印第安纳州南本德市的前市长皮特·布蒂吉格票数接近。
The Republican Party also held Iowa caucuses on Monday night. Ninety-seven percent of Republican Party voters chose Trump as their candidate.
共和党也于周一晚上举行了爱荷华州初选会议。97%的共和党选民选择川普作为候选人。
The next vote for party presidential nominees takes place on February 11 in the state of New Hampshire.
党内总统候选人提名的下一轮投票将于2月11日在新罕布什尔州举行。
I'm Mario Ritter, Jr.
我是小马里奥·里特。(51VOA.COM原创翻译，禁止转载，违者必究！)