周一，一名美国法官阻止了特朗普政府将反恐资金与各州及地方政府在选举管理方面的改革挂钩的做法。
A US judge blocked the Trump administration on Monday from conditioning counterterrorism funds to state and local governments on changes to election administration.
华盛顿特区美国地方法院法官阿米尔·阿里（Amir Ali）做出的这项裁决，标志着美国总统唐纳德·特朗普在11月3日中期选举前试图扩大联邦政府对选举管理权力的努力再次受挫。目前，共和党人正力争保住国会两院的多数席位。
今年早些时候，美国国土安全部（DHS）宣布，在州或地方政府采纳该政府所青睐的选举管理措施之前，将扣留与应对恐怖袭击及其他威胁相关的拨款项目中20%的资金。
The decision by Washington-based US District Judge Amir Ali marks the latest defeat for US President Donald Trump in his bid to increase the federal government’s authority over elections ahead of the November 3 midterms, when his Republicans are fighting to retain majorities in both houses of Congress. Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it would withhold 20 per cent of funding under grant programmes related to preparing for terrorist attacks and other threats until state or local governments adopted election administration measures favoured by the administration.
在周一的裁决中，阿里法官支持了得克萨斯州、俄亥俄州和田纳西州的多个县市。这些地方政府提起诉讼，要求阻止上述改革，理由是附加此类资金条件超出了联邦紧急事务管理局（FEMA）的职权范围。一个主要由民主党执政的州组成的联盟也针对该政策提起了另一项法律诉讼，目前该案仍在审理中。
In his ruling on Monday, Ali sided with counties and cities in Texas, Ohio and Tennessee, which sued to block the changes on the basis that the conditioning of such funds exceeded the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s authority. A coalition of mostly Democratic-governed states filed a separate legal challenge to the policy, which remains pending.
这些拨款项目总额约为11亿美元，已存在多年。其中没有任何项目是专门为选举安全而设计的。
The grant programmes, totalling about US$1.1 billion, have existed for years. None of them were designed with election security specifically in mind.
由民主党籍前总统乔·拜登任命的阿里法官写道：“国会并未授权将该拨款项目用于联邦紧急事务管理局在此所要求的这类选举管理改革——无论这些改革作为政策是否合理，它们都不是为了预防或应对‘恐怖主义行为’而提出的。”
“Congress did not authorise the grant programme to be used for the sort of election administration reforms FEMA demands here - changes that, whether sound or not as a matter of policy, are not advanced to prepare for or respond to ‘acts of terrorism’,” wrote Ali, an appointee of Democratic former president Joe Biden.
美国国土安全部和代表联邦政府出庭的司法部均未立即回应置评请求。
Neither the DHS nor the Justice Department, which represents the federal government in court, immediately responded to requests for comment.
国土安全部部长马克韦恩·马林（Markwayne Mullin）在宣布这一资金挂钩计划时曾表示，新要求旨在保护选举系统免受外国干预和网络攻击。
In announcing the plan to condition the funds, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the new requirements would protect election systems from foreign interference and cyberattacks.
该计划要求受资助者使用能够处理手工标记的纸质选票的设备，而非电子投票系统；同时要求他们手动审核至少5%的投票记录，并将选民名单与国土安全部（DHS）的数据库进行比对，以确保没有非公民参与投票。
The plan would have required grant recipients to use equipment that accepts hand-marked paper ballots rather than electronic voting systems, manually audit at least 5 per cent of ballots cast, and compare their voter rolls to a DHS database to make sure no non-citizens wereed to vote.
特朗普长期以来一直散布关于美国选举中存在广泛舞弊行为的虚假言论，包括他在2020年总统选举中落败的原因。然而，独立的研究和审计结果表明，选民舞弊现象其实非常罕见。
Trump has long made false claims about widespread voting fraud in US elections including the 2020 presidential election that he lost. Independent studies and audits have found voter fraud to be rare.