县书记官准备抵制在总统特朗普赋权下壮大的否认选举运动10月的一个周三清晨，十多个人聚集在密歇根州巴里县一间木镶板房间里，接受美国中期选举投票站工作人员的培训。
County clerks prepare to fend off election denial movement empowered by President Trump Early on a Wednesday morning in October, a dozen people gathered in a wood-panelled room in Barry County, Mich., to be trained as poll workers for the U.S. midterm elections.
在为期三小时的培训中，他们学习了如何操作计票机、核对带照片的身份证以及处理缺席选票。
During the three-hour session, they were taught how to operate a vote-tabulating machine, check photo IDs and process absentee ballots.
但在培训开始前，这个乡村县的书记官萨拉·范登堡感谢他们“帮助维护我们的民主”。作为巴里县的书记官，萨拉·范登堡负责为选举日的投票站配备人员。（迈克尔·德拉帕克/加拿大广播公司）2026年中期选举举行之际，一场在总统唐纳德·特朗普赋权下壮大的否认选举运动花费了数月时间，声称这些原本例行的工作是猖獗舞弊的根源。
But before the session began, Sarah VanDenburg, the clerk in this rural county, thanked them for "helping preserve our democracy." As the clerk of Barry County, Sarah VanDenburg is responsible for staffing polling stations on election day. (Michael Drapack/CBC) The 2026 midterms are taking place while an election denial movement, empowered by President Donald Trump, has spent months claiming these otherwise routine tasks are the source of rampant fraud.
尽管几乎没有证据支持这些说法，但它们正被否认选举者——其中许多人现在身居要职——用作试图干预投票过程的借口。特朗普本人曾公开盘算过援引国家紧急状态措施来改变计票方式。
And even though there is little evidence to support these claims, they’re being used as a pretext by election deniers — many now in positions of authority — to try to interfere in the voting process. Trump himself has mused openly about invoking a national emergency measure to alter how votes are counted.
10月25日，在密歇根州休伦港的一场竞选集会上，总统唐纳德·特朗普在台上向密歇根州参议员共和党候选人迈克·罗杰斯（左）致意。（朱莉娅·德马雷·尼欣森/美联社）在巴里县，警长达尔·利夫已成为散布有关选举运作方式阴谋论的最强烈声音。在过去六年里，他一直利用自己的职务散布声称外国国民在2020年黑了该县投票机、将选票从特朗普改投给乔·拜登的言论。
President Donald Trump greets Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican candidate for Senate, left, on stage during a campaign rally in Port Huron, Mich., on Oct. 25. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/Associated Press) In Barry County, sheriff Dar Leaf has emerged as the loudest voice pushing conspiracies about how elections are run. For the past six years, he has been using his office to circulate claims that foreign nationals hacked voting machines in the county in 2020 to switch votes from Trump to Joe Biden.
最近，利夫一直试图讯问州选举官员，作为一项新调查的一部分，该调查旨在指控密歇根州2026年中期选举的选民名册被非公民蓄意夸大，尽管研究表明非公民投票极为罕见。
More recently, Leaf has been trying to interrogate state election officials as part of a new investigation into claims Michigan’s voter rolls for the 2026 midterms are being deliberately inflated with non-citizens, even though studies have shown non-citizen voting is extremely rare.
“我有责任出去调查，我不会退缩，”利夫在位于密歇根州黑斯廷斯的治安官办公室总部接受加拿大广播公司（CBC）新闻采访时表示。
"I have a duty to go out and investigate, and I'm not gonna back down," Leaf told CBC News during an interview at sheriff headquarters in Hastings, Mich.
范登伯格说，她努力与治安官保持良好的工作关系，但他的信念“会让事情变得困难”。“我有责任去调查，”治安官说。利夫是“宪法治安官与维和官员协会”的知名人物，该协会认为治安官在其县内拥有最高权力，并鼓励其成员调查毫无根据的选民欺诈理论。
VanDenburg says she tries to maintain a good working relationship with the sheriff, but his beliefs "can make things difficult." I have a duty to investigate, sheriff says Leaf is a prominent figure in the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, which believes sheriffs have ultimate authority in their county and has encouraged its members to investigate unfounded voter-fraud theories.
“只是让治安官们醒悟过来，他们的职责到底应该是什么，”利夫谈到该协会时说。
"It's just getting the sheriffs woke up to what their duties are really supposed to be," Leaf said about the association.
巴里县治安官达里尔·利夫（图为2024年出席特朗普竞选活动时）表示，他会考虑在中期选举期间扣押选票。
Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf, seen here at a 2024 Trump campaign event, said he would consider seizing ballots during the midterm elections.
在自己的副手协助下，利夫曾于2021年和2022年试图在该县扣押数台投票机，以证明他的理论，但被一名法官和一名检察官驳回，他们认定他的主张毫无根据。
With help from his own deputies, Leaf tried to seize several voting machines in the county in 2021 and 2022 to prove his theory, only to be rebuffed by a judge and prosecutor who determined his claims had no merit.
去年，该组织的另一名成员、加利福尼亚州治安官查德·比安科采取了前所未有的行动，扣押了2024年大选的65万张选票，以调查舞弊指控。法院裁定该扣押非法，并下令归还选票。
In an unprecedented move last year, another member of the group, California sheriff Chad Bianco, seized 650,000 ballots from the 2024 election to probe claims of irregularities. A court ruled the seizure unlawful and ordered the ballots returned.
但支持特朗普的官员扣押选票或投票机的前景令选举观察人士感到震惊，他们担心此类行动可能破坏监督机制，并使核实结果变得困难。
But the prospect of ballots, or voting machines, being seized by pro-Trump officials has alarmed elections observers, who worry such manoeuvres could disrupt oversight and make it difficult to verify results.
当被问及是否会考虑扣押选票时，利夫对加拿大广播公司新闻表示：“我必须有充分的理由才能扣押它们。我们可能会先扣押，然后再去申请法院命令。”
Asked if he would consider seizing ballots, Leaf told CBC News, "I would have to have a good reason to seize them. We'd probably seize and then go get a court order."
当选举否认者掌权时 几十年来，美国司法部一直监督地方遵守联邦选举法律的情况。但在特朗普治下，选举否认者如今占据了该部门的高级职位，该部门积极寻找证据以支持总统关于大规模选民欺诈的主张。
When election deniers are in charge For decades, the U.S. Department of Justice monitored local compliance with federal election laws. But under Trump, election deniers now occupy senior positions in the department, which has aggressively sought evidence to support the president’s claims of widespread voter fraud.
例如，该部门正与30个州争夺敏感选民信息的访问权，这是其寻找非公民投票证据努力的一部分。
For instance, the department is battling 30 states for access to sensitive voter information as part of an effort to find evidence of non-citizen voting.
今年早些时候，联邦调查局（FBI）在佐治亚州富尔顿县查获了2020年大选的选票。司法部表示，正在调查“该县2020年总统选举期间发生的违规行为”，尽管佐治亚州在2020年总统选举中的选票已经被计票三次。每次计票都确认了民主党人乔·拜登的胜利。
Earlier this year, the FBI seized ballots in Fulton County, Ga., from the 2020 election. The Justice Department said it was investigating 'irregularities that occurred during the 2020 presidential election in the County,' even though Georgia’s votes in the 2020 presidential race were already counted three times. Each count affirmed Democrat Joe Biden’s win.
联邦调查局和移民与海关执法局（ICE）也被指派调查选民欺诈，尽管大多数研究表明这是一种罕见现象。
The FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have also been tasked with investigating voter fraud, even though most studies suggest it's a rare phenomenon.
特朗普利用普遍选民欺诈的前提，为其试图让白宫对选举拥有更多控制权并重写有利于自己的规则的行为辩护。自重新执政以来，他已命令美国邮政局限制邮寄投票，并推动国会通过一项选民身份证法，该法将使数百万美国人更难投票。
Trump has used the premise of widespread voter fraud to justify his attempts to have the White House exert more control over elections and rewrite rules in his favour. Since returning to power, he has ordered the U.S. Postal Service to restrict mail-in voting and pushed Congress to pass a voter ID law that would have made it harder for millions of Americans to vote.
但宪法赋予各州，而非总统，选举管辖权。迄今为止，法院一直维护这一原则。特朗普能宣布国家紧急状态吗？
But the Constitution gives states, not the president, authority over elections. And courts, so far, have upheld that principle. Can Trump call a national emergency?
这些努力的失败，加上民调显示国会中的共和党多数席位岌岌可危，导致选举否认运动中的一些人敦促特朗普采取更激进的措施，例如宣布国家紧急状态。
The failure of these efforts, combined with polls suggesting the Republican majorities in Congress are in jeopardy, has led some in the election denial movement to urge Trump to take even more drastic measures, such as calling a national emergency.
该措施的支持者认为，投票机极易受到外国黑客攻击，因此基于国家安全理由宣布紧急状态是合理的。
Proponents of the measure argue voting machines are so vulnerable to foreign hacking that an emergency would be warranted on national security grounds.
在本月早些时候发表的《时代》杂志采访中，特朗普被问及宣布紧急状态的可能性。“我不排除任何可能性，”他回答说。
In an interview with Time magazine published earlier this month, Trump was asked about the possibility of declaring a state of emergency. "I don't rule anything out or in," he replied.
洛伦佐·西韦尔（Lorenzo Sewell）是一名与特朗普政府及数名国会共和党人保持联系的底特律牧师，他表示，宣布国家紧急状态将允许总统下令各州停止使用计票机并叫停邮寄投票。
Lorenzo Sewell, a Detroit pastor with ties to the Trump administration and several Republicans in Congress, said calling a national emergency would allow the president to order states to stop using vote-tabulating machines and halt mail-in balloting.
180教会（180 Church）牧师洛伦佐·西韦尔于2025年1月20日在华盛顿特区美国国会大厦特朗普总统宣誓就职后致闭幕祝祷。（索尔·勒布／美联社）“但在实现这样一件事的面向上，他需要人。他需要另一次1月6日事件，这就是我所主张的，只不过要去掉暴力，”西韦尔说。他曾在特朗普的第二次就职典礼以及今年夏天的共和党全国代表大会上发表讲话。许多法律专家表示，这一想法违宪，且几乎肯定会被法院阻止。
Pastor of 180 Church Lorenzo Sewell delivers a benediction after President Donald Trump was sworn in at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2025. (Saul Loeb/Associated Press) "But in terms of getting something like this, he needs people. He needs another January 6th, and that's what I'm advocating for, minus the violence," said Sewell, who spoke at Trump’s second inauguration and the Republican convention this summer. Many legal experts say the idea is unconstitutional and almost certain to be blocked by the courts. "Our entire constitution is based on the idea that the president has no power over elections," said David Becker, a former elections lawyer with the Department of Justice who now heads the Center for Election Innovation and Research. Training 'democracy defenders'
“我们的整个宪法都建立在这样一个理念之上：总统对选举没有任何权力，”曾任司法部选举律师、现任选举创新与研究中心负责人的大卫·贝克尔（David Becker）说。培训“民主捍卫者”尽管如此，州议员和进步派投票权团体仍在为选举日的各种可能情况做准备，包括面对武装联邦特工或支持特朗普人群对峙的前景。
State lawmakers and progressive voting-rights groups are nevertheless preparing for a wide range of scenarios on election day, including the prospect of confrontations with armed federal agents or pro-Trump crowds.
“言论似乎变得更加暴力了，”底特律社会正义组织“密歇根团结”（Michigan United）的执行副主任奥特姆·巴特勒（Autumn Butler）说。该组织一直在培训掌握缓和冲突策略的“民主捍卫者”。
"It seems the rhetoric has become more violent," said Autumn Butler, deputy executive director of Michigan United, a Detroit-based social justice organization that's been training "democracy defenders" in de-escalation tactics.
奥特姆·巴特勒是底特律社会正义组织“密歇根团结”的执行副主任，该组织一直在培训“民主捍卫者”掌握缓和冲突的策略。（迈克尔·德拉帕克／加拿大广播公司）她回忆起2020年时，一群特朗普支持者曾试图在底特律干扰计票员清点邮寄选票。
Autumn Butler is deputy executive director of Michigan United, a Detroit-based social justice organization that's been training 'democracy defenders' in de-escalation tactics. (Michael Drapack/CBC) She recalled how, in 2020, a crowd of Trump supporters attempted to disrupt poll workers counting mail-in ballots in Detroit.
“这就是为什么我们有民主捍卫者，”巴特勒说。“这些是我们正在思考和规划的情景。”巴里县书记官范登伯格希望她的准备工作能帮助防止选举日紧张局势升级。
"That's why we have our democracy defenders," Butler said. "These are the scenarios that we're thinking about and planning for." VanDenburg, the Barry County clerk, is hoping her preparations will help prevent tensions from boiling over on election day.
她最近向警长及其副手做了一场演示，介绍选举日的基本规则，例如谁可以进入投票站（武装警官不得进入）。
She recently gave a presentation to the sheriff and his deputies about basic election day rules, such as who can enter a polling station (armed officers are not allowed).
利夫欢迎这些信息，他说：“其中一些事情我们以前从未学过。”在该县工作的投票站工作人员大多将来自社区，范登伯格表示这将缓和气氛。
Leaf welcomed the information, saying, "some of those things we've never been taught before." Those working the polls in the county will mostly be people from the community, which VanDenburg says will lighten the atmosphere.
“你走进投票站，会感到温暖。你会感到受欢迎，我认为这对我们的选民产生这种感觉非常重要。”
"You walk into the polling place and you feel warmth. You feel invited, which I think is very important for our voters to feel that way."