The marathon vote in India: More than 900 million people are eligible to vote.

印度的馬拉松投票：超過 9 億人具有選舉資格，可以前往投票。

More than 8,000 candidates are vying for a seat in the lower house and polling lasts for nearly six weeks or 39 days to be exact.

超過 8,000 名候選人角逐下議院的席位，選舉會持續將近 6 週的時間，或準確地來說是 39 天。

So, needless to say an election in the second-most populous country on earth is complicated and elaborate.

所以，世界上人口第二大國的選舉有多麻煩又複雜當然不在話下。

India has four times as many registered voters than the United States.

印度的登記選民人數是美國的 4 倍。

And it has higher voter turnout than the U.S.

而且印度的選民投票率高於美國。

That's because the country's committed to polling every one of their voters.

因為這個國家要保證每一個選民都能投票。

And when I say committed,

而當我說保證

I mean, they're required by law to do it.

我的意思是，他們是被法律要求要這麼做。

Election rules say that there has to be a polling station within two kilometers of every dwelling.

選舉法表明，在每個住宅單位 2 公里範圍內必須要有 1 個投票所。

That's true for the more than 20 million people that live in Mumbai.

在超過 2,000 萬人居住的孟買，的確是這麼一回事。

And for the sole human living in Gir Forest National Park in Gujarat, who gets his own polling booth.

而對古吉拉特邦吉爾森林國家公園唯一的人類，他擁有自己的投票亭。

So in practice, that's one million polling stations and 12 million polling officials.

所以實際上，這高達 100 萬個投票所跟 1,200 個票務人員。

These election workers go to all edges of the country — literally:

這些選舉工作人員會去到國家各個角落 — 沒在開完笑：

700 special trains will be deployed this year

今年會配置 700 列鐵路專車

as well as boats, planes, elephants and teams of camels.

以及船運、飛機、大象與駱駝團隊。

I did say elaborate didn't I? Key to this entire exercise is this contraption.

我剛剛有說過這是個複雜的盛事吧？整個選舉實行的關鍵是這個裝置。

India has been using secure electronic voting machines for two decades.

印度使用這個可靠的電子投票機已經 20 年了。

Each machine has three parts.

每台機器都可分成 3 個部分。

First, there's the control unit that counts and stores the votes.

首先，控制裝置負責計算與儲存選票。

And there's the balloting units, where voters pick their candidates by pressing a button.

還有投票裝置，選民可以透過按壓按鈕來選擇他們支持的候選人。

The third piece is a secure printer that deposits a hard copy of each ballot into a sealed box.

第 3 個部份是安全印表機，會將每次投票的紙本印出來放進密封箱。

And it's just that simple.

就是那麼簡單。

The electronic voting process has made it dramatically easier for Indians to cast votes.

電子投票過程使印度人投票變得非常容易。

But it's also part of the reason why the process takes so long.

但這也是使選舉過程曠日廢時的原因之一。

There are just 1.6 million control units,

控制裝置只有 160 萬台

but more than 900 million eligible voters.

但有超過 9 億名具選舉資格的選民。

That's roughly one unit for every 552 voters.

大約是每 552 名選民可分配到 1 台控制裝置。

So, what's at stake?

所以，其中的變數是甚麼呢？

Voters are choosing who will fill 543 seats in Parliament's lower house, the Lok Sabha.

選民要選出 543 席議員來填補下議院，就是人民院。

The golden number is 272 seats.

黃金過半席次是 272 席。

That's how much a party or coalition needs to pick the next prime minister.

這個數字是一個政黨或聯合政黨要得到總理提名權需要的席次。

Then in five years, people start this process all over again.

然後 5 年內，人們需要再把整個選舉過程重新跑一次。