再过五周，美国人将在中期选举中投票，决定由谁掌控国会，而目前民主党人有理由感到鼓舞。
Five weeks from now, Americans will cast their ballots in the midterm elections to decide who controls Congress, and right now, Democrats have reason to be encouraged.
密歇根州、北卡罗来纳州、阿拉斯加州和爱荷华州正在上演一些关键的参议院席位争夺战。非党派智库《库克政治报告》创始人查利·库克表示，民主党可能赢得众议院约20个席位，以及参议院约4至5个席位。
Some of the key Senate races are unfolding in Michigan, North Carolina, Alaska and Iowa. Democrats could gain roughly 20 seats in the House and about four or five in the Senate, according to Charlie Cook, founder of the non-partisan Cook Political Report.
但通往选举日的一切仍充满变数。共和党正为守住国会控制权而鏖战，外界越来越关注特朗普政府能在多大程度上影响选举，其中包括投票资格规则。
But the road to election day is anything but settled. As Republicans fight to hold on to Congress, questions are growing about how far the Trump administration could go to shape the election — including the rules around who gets to vote.
上周五，美国最高法院为各州使用扩充后的联邦数据库核查选民名册铺平道路，让唐纳德·特朗普总统在反对非公民投票的斗争中暂时取得了一场胜利。
Last Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for states to use an expanded federal database to check voter rolls, granting President Donald Trump a temporary win in his campaign against non-citizen voting.
那么，这项决定对中期选举意味着什么？在选民前往投票站之前，特朗普还可能采取哪些其他措施？
So what could the decision mean for the midterms, and what other steps could Trump take before voters head to the polls?
驻华盛顿记者凯蒂·辛普森、威利·洛里和保罗·亨特将审视哪些中期选举争夺正在升温、共和党与民主党各自面临怎样的利害关系，以及特朗普究竟有多担忧。
Washington correspondents Katie Simpson, Willy Lowry and Paul Hunter take a look at where the midterm races are heating up, what's at stake for Republicans and Democrats, and just how worried Trump might be.
保罗·亨特：这么多数据和民调都指向民主党，我认为很多人都会担心：“特朗普会不会在其他方面加大力度，试图力挽狂澜？”大量讨论都聚焦于特朗普是否会宣称存在选民欺诈，以及他是否会采取行动改变民众的投票方式，使其更有利于共和党。关于这一点，你知道些什么？
Paul Hunter: With all these numbers and polls pointing toward Democrats, I think a lot of people worry, ‘Is Trump gonna push extra hard in other ways to try to salvage a win out of all this?’A lot of talk centres around whether Trump will claim voter fraud and whether he will take steps to change the way people vote to the benefit of Republicans. What do you know about that?
威利·洛里：今年夏天，他在黄金时段发表那次讲话时，就已经为这一幕定了调，也由此引发了外界对本届政府选举诚信工作的种种担忧。
Willy Lowry: He set the scene for that over the summer when he had that primetime address, which raised all of these concerns that the administration had over election integrity.
此前几天里，其中许多说法最终都被驳斥了，但他显然已经在试图埋下怀疑的种子。最近，最高法院将允许政府采取其要求的一项措施，即允许各州使用一种新的数据系统，将公民身份信息与社会安全号码及其他敏感数据结合起来，从而大力查找非法选民。
Much of them were eventually refuted over the course of the preceding days, but he is already trying to plant the seeds of doubt for sure. The Supreme Court, recently, is going to allow something that the administration called for, which is to allow states to use a new system of data that combines citizenship information with social security number and other sensitive data points to try and essentially hunt out illegal voters.
但最高法院也作出了不利于该政府的裁定。该政府曾试图利用邮政系统在州选举官员提交选票后对其进行筛查。
But the Supreme Court [is] also ruling against the administration, which was trying to use the postal service to screen ballots after they were submitted by the state election officials.
最高法院表示，现阶段围绕邮寄选票制定新规定会酿成大乱、造成混乱，因此拒绝了该政府的请求。
The Supreme Court's saying [that] introducing new rules around mail-in ballots at this point would have wreaked havoc, sowed chaos, [therefore] denying the administration's request.
凯蒂·辛普森：唐纳德·特朗普有着企图破坏选举公正性的明确记录，因此一旦出现他不喜欢的结果，或许就会让谁都不相信这一结果。
Katie Simpson: Donald Trump has a clearcut history of trying to undermine integrity in elections, so that if there is a result he doesn't like, that perhaps no one believes the result.
看看“1月6日”事件之后发生了什么，而随着中期选举临近、民调显示形势似乎并不有利于他，他已经准备好延续这种做法。
Look what happened after January 6, and he's set himself up to continue that pattern heading into the midterm elections as the polls do not look to be in his favor.
联邦政府正试图通过所有这些错综复杂的手段插手这些选举——再次提醒加拿大听众，美国的选举实际上是由各州而非联邦政府负责的。
With all of these complicated things that the federal government is trying to do to insert itself into these elections — which as a reminder to Canadians, they are actually run by individual states, not the federal government.
那么，联邦政府——或者特朗普政府——为什么希望各州掌握这些信息？这样做可能是为了将人们从选民登记名单中删除，使他们无法投票，或者不得不重新登记，又或者导致他们错过登记截止日期。
[So] why would the federal government — or the Trump administration — want these states to have this information? It's to possibly knock people off voter registration so that they can't vote or they have to sign up or that maybe they missed their deadline.
得克萨斯州一个县就出现过这样的例子：一些选民被错误地从选民名单中除名。
In one county, in Texas, there is an example where people were erroneously knocked off a voter list.
这是特朗普政府在试图增加那些可能不想投票给特朗普政府的人的投票难度吗？如果投票人数减少或者人们的投票权被剥夺，共和党人是不是更容易获胜？特朗普政府会派移民和海关执法局（ICE）特工或军方官员去投票站做点什么吗？而这是他们[在法律上]不能做的。
Is this the Trump administration trying to make it harder for people to vote, who might not want to vote for the Trump administration? Is it easier for the Republicans to win should fewer people show up or they're disenfranchised to vote? Is the Trump administration gonna do something by sending ICE agents or military officials to polling stations, which they cannot [legally] do.
保罗·亨特：是特朗普在输，还是民主党在赢？或者两者兼而有之？民主党为了赢得这场选举正在做些什么？
Paul Hunter: Is Trump losing, or are Democrats winning? Or can both be true? What are Democrats doing to win this thing?
凯蒂·辛普森：对于民主党来说，这是一个试图决定他们在2028年要走哪条道路的时刻。
Katie Simpson: This is a moment for the Democrats to try and determine which route they're going to go in 2028.
他们有一批非常进步主义的候选人，也有一批更加温和派的候选人，根据选举结果以及谁能当选，我认为这 realmente 将是对他们未来在2028年总统候选人道路选择上的一次真正试金石。
They've got a slate of really progressive candidates, they've got a slate of more moderate candidates, and depending on the outcome and who can get elected, I think it's really going to be the litmus test for which route they go for candidates to be the presidential candidate in 2028.
另外，这并非民主党所独有，但鉴于该党过去十年左右的历史纪录，它确实非常适用于民主党：不要低估一个领先的政党把领先优势搞砸的能力。民调可能显示民主党会表现得很好……但时间还很充裕，我们不知道特朗普政府是否有能力剥夺选民的投票权。
Also, this is not specific to the Democrats, but it really applies to the Democrats, given the track record of the party over the past decade or so: don't underestimate the ability of a party with a lead to screw up a lead. The polls may suggest that the Democrats are gonna do very well … but there is so much time, and we don't know whether the Trump administration is gonna have any ability to disenfranchise voters.
威利·洛里：在这一点上，民主党的最佳策略有点像是“让开一步，让这一切自行发展——让油价继续上涨”。我不认为这是对特朗普的投反对票，因为我认为他对共和党仍然有着极具吸引力的掌控力，然而，这确实是对他的议程和政策决定的投反对票。
Willy Lowry: At this point, the Democrats’ best strategy is a little bit [of] ‘Get out the way and let this all unfold — let the price of gas keep rising.’I don't view it as a vote against Trump, because I think he still holds a really captivating sway over the Republican Party, and yet, it is a vote against his agenda and his policy decisions.
特别是美伊战争——这不仅背叛了避免战争的竞选承诺，更重要的是，它对美国人的钱包产生了直接冲击，我认为这才是关键所在。
In particular, the U.S.-Iran war — not only was it a betrayal of a campaign pledge to avoid wars, but more importantly, it is having that direct impact on Americans' wallets, and I think that's what this is about.