过去两年，特朗普总统一直在试图颠覆美国的民主制度。周二，选民们站了出来，对他予以抵制。
President Trump has spent the past two years trying to subvert American democracy. On Tuesday, voters stood up to him.
面对总统为操纵中期选举所做的种种尝试——包括极端的不公正选区划分、虚假的选民舞弊指控、阻止邮寄投票的努力等等——数千万美国人以投票参与和拒绝支持那个纵容他的共和党作为回应。民主党人重新夺回了参议院的控制权，并有望同时夺回众议院。这次否定范围之广，足以跨越美国的政治极化。共和党人甚至在堪萨斯、肯塔基、艾奥瓦、俄亥俄、南卡罗来纳和得克萨斯等传统上深红的地区也输掉了选战。
In the face of the president’s many attempts to manipulate the midterm elections — through extreme gerrymandering, false claims of voter fraud, efforts to block mail voting and more — tens of millions of Americans responded by turning out and rejecting the Republican Party that has enabled him. Democrats retook control of the Senate and are poised to retake the House as well. The repudiation was broad enough to overcome America’s political polarization. Republicans lost races even in traditionally deep red places, including Kansas, Kentucky, Iowa, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas.
他们之所以落败，是因为许多独立人士乃至共和党人都认为特朗普的第二个任期是失败的。
They lost because many independents and even Republicans consider Mr. Trump’s second term to be a failure.
这一结果对特朗普的专制行为形成了关键制约。它赋予民主党人权力去调查他的腐败和违法行为，并通过立法为他的适得其反的议程提供替代方案。这个国家已经让人感到发生了变化，而到明年1月，它实际上将会发生改变。
The outcome creates a crucial check on Mr. Trump’s autocratic behavior. It empowers Democrats to investigate his corruption and lawbreaking and pass legislation that offers an alternative to his counterproductive agenda. The country already feels changed, and it will in fact be changed in January.
美国仍然面临许多长期问题，而两党都未提出明确的解决方案。而且在未来两年里，只要特朗普仍在总统任上，国会和法官就需要做好准备，应对他进一步破坏宪法秩序的新企图。
The United States still faces many long-term problems to which neither party has offered clear solutions. And over the next two years, while Mr. Trump remains president, Congress and judges will need to be prepared to counter further attempts by him to undermine the constitutional order.
尽管如此，今天仍是一个值得自豪的日子。有志于威权主义的人常常利用立法选举来巩固自己的权力，并进一步破坏民主。2026年，美国人民拒绝让特朗普这样做。这个制度经受住了考验。
Nonetheless, this is a day to feel pride. Aspiring authoritarians often use legislative elections to cement their power and further undermine democracy. In 2026, the American people refused to allow Mr. Trump to do so. The system has held.
除了选民之外，还有三个群体尤其值得称赞：选举工作人员、法律倡导者和法官。
In addition to voters, three groups deserve particular credit: election workers, legal advocates and judges.
选举工作人员在今年面对特朗普先生的持续压力，仍然履行了职责。他长期声称大规模欺诈决定美国选举，尽管数十年的证据与之相反。跨党派的选举工作人员通过一如既往的勤勉工作，帮助选民投票并统计选票，以此回应这些谎言。
Election workers did their jobs this year in the face of relentless pressure from Mr. Trump. He has long claimed that widespread fraud decides American elections, despite decades of evidence to the contrary. Election workers across party lines responded to these lies by doing their jobs as diligently as they long have, helping people cast their ballots and counting those ballots.
在许多州，选举官员采取了具体措施阻止特朗普政府的干预。去年，司法部要求各州向联邦政府提供选民的出生日期、驾照信息和部分社会安全号码。包括数名共和党人在内的官员拒绝配合。
In many states, election officials took specific actions to stop interference from the Trump administration. Last year, the Justice Department demanded that states provide the federal government with voters’ birth dates, driver’s license information and partial Social Security numbers. Officials, including several Republicans, refused to comply.
其中的突出人物有犹他州共和党副州长迪德丽·亨德森、密歇根州民主党州务卿乔斯琳·本森以及西弗吉尼亚州共和党州务卿克里斯·华纳。三人均拒绝配合，均被政府提起诉讼，且均在法庭上获胜。
Among the standouts were Utah’s Republican lieutenant governor, Deidre Henderson; Michigan’s Democratic secretary of state, Jocelyn Benson; and West Virginia’s Republican secretary of state, Kris Warner. Each refused to comply, each drew a lawsuit from the administration, and each won in court.
他们能够抵制总统，凸显了美国分权政府的优势。因为总统无权推翻他们的决定，他们才能拒绝。宪法的选举条款允许各州自行决定选举的运行方式。这种联邦主义成为抵御特朗普先生专制倾向的坚固屏障。
Their ability to resist the president underscores an advantage of America’s decentralized government. They could refuse because the president has no power to overrule them. The elections clause of the Constitution lets each state decide how its elections are run. This federalism proved a bulwark against Mr. Trump’s authoritarian instincts.
今年另一批为民主站出来的是法律倡导者。当特朗普先生试图干预选举——通过行政命令企图使选民登记复杂化、阻止各州统计部分邮寄选票，并指示邮政署决定哪些选民将收到邮寄选票——倡导者迅速通过提起诉讼作出回应。
A second group that stood up for democracy this year were legal advocates. When Mr. Trump tried to interfere in the elections — through executive orders that sought to complicate voter registration, bar states from counting some mail ballots and direct the Postal Service to decide which voters would receive mail ballots — advocates quickly responded by filing lawsuits.
这些倡导者包括布伦南司法中心、美国公民自由联盟、女性选民联盟、共同事业组织以及民主党籍总检察长。过去两年，一些知名律师事务所一直不敢直面特朗普政府的法律滥用行为，这使得非营利组织的工作更加重要。
The advocates included the Brennan Center, the American Civil Liberties Union, the League of Women Voters, Common Cause and Democratic attorneys general. Some prestigious law firms have been afraid of confronting the Trump administration’s legal abuses over the past two years, making the work of nonprofits all the more important.
这些诉讼之所以经常获胜，是因为有第三方的力量：联邦法官。尽管特朗普及其盟友施加恐吓，这些法官仍坚持依法办事、维护宪法。由两党总统任命的法官——包括特朗普本人任命的法官——阻止了涉及选举规则的行政命令的关键部分。在连续27项地区法院裁决中，法官们驳回了司法部索取州选民名册的要求。
The lawsuits frequently succeeded because of the third group: federal judges who insisted on following the law and upholding the Constitution despite intimidation efforts by Mr. Trump and his allies. Judges appointed by presidents from both parties, including Mr. Trump himself, blocked key parts of the executive orders concerning election rules. In 27 straight district court rulings, judges rejected the Justice Department’s demands for state voter rolls.
最高法院既值得肯定也值得批评。最高法院作出裁决，使特朗普极端的党派性不公正划分选区成为可能，并使其政府建立全国选民数据库的努力成为可能，这是错误的。但大法官们确实采取了行动，保护美国人在今年秋天投票的能力。9月，最高法院维持了下级法院的一项裁决，该裁决禁止邮政管理局采取可能限制邮寄投票的措施。
The Supreme Court deserves both credit and criticism. The court was wrong to issue rulings that made possible Mr. Trump’s extreme partisan gerrymandering and his administration’s efforts to create a national voter database. But the justices did act to protect Americans’ ability to cast votes this fall. In September, it upheld a lower-court ruling that barred the Postal Service from taking steps that could have restricted mail voting.
那项裁决提醒人们，这个法院在选举问题上确实有其红线。2020年大选后，大法官们拒绝审理特朗普关于选举舞弊的虚假指控案件。在接下来的几周里，大法官们可能还需要驳回类似的指控。
That ruling was a reminder that this court does have its red lines about elections. After the 2020 election, the justices refused to hear cases with Mr. Trump’s false claims about election fraud. The justices may need to swat down similar claims in the weeks ahead.
但前方的挑战不应掩盖美国人所取得的成就。今年，选举工作人员、律师和法官捍卫了保护投票的规则。数千万美国人前往投票站，行使了他们最基本的民主权利。美国人表明，选择领导人的权力属于他们自己。现在，他们必须保持警惕，直到官员们认证每一场竞选结果、当选者就职为止。
But the challenges ahead should not overshadow what Americans accomplished. This year, election workers, lawyers and judges defended the rules that protect the vote. And tens of millions of Americans went to the polls to exercise their most fundamental democratic right. Americans showed that the power to choose their leaders belongs to them. Now they must remain vigilant until officials certify every race and the winners take office.
照片由亚历山大·科金、罗杰·基斯比、尼克·哈根、米歇尔·古斯塔夫森、约翰·塔利、威尔·瓦拉西拉、珍·阿克曼、麦迪·麦加维和布拉德·J·维斯特为《纽约时报》拍摄。
Source photographs by Alexander Coggin, Roger Kisby, Nick Hagen, Michelle Gustafson, John Tully, Will Warasila, Jenn Ackerman, Maddie McGarvey, and Brad J. Vest for The New York Times.