How Trump Weaponized the DOJ Division That Kept Elections Fair
How Trump Weaponized the DOJ Division That Kept Elections Fair
特朗普如何将负责维护选举公正的司法部部门“武器化”
When David Becker applied for his dream job as a lawyer at the Department of Justice’s Voting Section, he never thought he would actually get it—not because he was a bad lawyer, but because it was among the most sought-after jobs in the country. 当大卫·贝克（David Becker）申请司法部投票部门（Voting Section）的律师这一梦想职位时，他从未想过自己真的能被录用——这并非因为他能力不足，而是因为这是全国最令人向往的工作之一。
“It was one of the most in-demand jobs,” Becker, now the head of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, tells WIRED. “I knew there were going to be thousands of people applying.” “这是需求量最大的工作之一，”现任选举创新与研究中心（Center for Election Innovation and Research）负责人的贝克告诉《连线》（WIRED）杂志，“我知道会有成千上万的人申请。”
The Voting Section, which is part of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, was established following the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. For the next six decades, the lawyers who worked there focused on ensuring that every American had an equal right to vote. This meant enforcing the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act, representing the United States in court to prevent discriminatory voting practices. While many of the cases were high-profile, a lot of the work the lawyers did affected a tiny fraction of the population, work that no one else was willing or capable of doing. 投票部门隶属于司法部民权司，是在1965年具有里程碑意义的《投票权法案》通过后成立的。在随后的六十年里，在那里工作的律师们致力于确保每一位美国公民都拥有平等的投票权。这意味着要执行《全国选民登记法》和《帮助美国投票法案》，并在法庭上代表美国政府，以防止歧视性的投票行为。虽然许多案件备受瞩目，但律师们所做的许多工作只影响到极少数群体，而这些工作是其他人既不愿做也无力承担的。
Against his expectations, Becker got the job, and it was everything he had hoped it would be. He worked there for seven years, from 1998 to 2005. “I felt incredibly privileged, and I was working with some of the best lawyers I had ever seen in my life,” he says. 出乎意料的是，贝克得到了这份工作，而且它完全符合他的期待。他在那里工作了七年，从1998年到2005年。“我感到无比荣幸，我与我一生中见过的最优秀的律师们共事，”他说。
But, as I document in my latest piece for WIRED, over the course of the past year, the Trump administration has ripped apart the Voting Section, a place described by one expert as “the crown jewel of the Civil Rights Division.” The administration has removed decades of institutional knowledge by effectively forcing out more than two dozen experienced lawyers and replacing them with a cadre of loyalists who appear to be carrying out the White House’s plans to subvert trust in elections. 然而，正如我在为《连线》撰写的最新文章中所记录的那样，在过去的一年里，特朗普政府彻底拆解了投票部门——一个被专家形容为“民权司皇冠上的明珠”的地方。本届政府通过变相逼走二十多名经验丰富的律师，并用一批似乎正在执行白宫破坏选举信任计划的忠诚派取而代之，抹去了该部门数十年的机构知识积累。
Becker, like a dozen other former Voting Section lawyers and experts I spoke to over the course of the last three months, is not only deeply sad about what has happened, but angry that the work done on behalf of the most vulnerable people in US society is no longer being carried out. 贝克和我过去三个月里采访的其他十几位前投票部门律师和专家一样，不仅对所发生的一切深感悲哀，而且对那些旨在保护美国社会最弱势群体的努力不再被执行感到愤怒。
One former DOJ lawyer who had many years of experience in the Voting Section before being pushed out last year, and who spoke on the condition of anonymity, recalled a case they worked on in a small town in a southern US state where Black voters were subject to discrimination. 一位去年被排挤出局、曾在投票部门工作多年且要求匿名的一名前司法部律师，回忆起他们在美国南部一个小镇处理的一起案件，当时那里的黑人选民正遭受歧视。
“The black section of town had horrible roads,” they told WIRED. “They’d never had representation because they had citywide elections, and [the city had] never elected a person of color. Now [after the DOJ’s work] there’s a person of color in the city government. I just don’t know if that type of work will ever come back, and it’s deeply depressing.” “镇上的黑人聚居区道路状况极差，”他们告诉《连线》，“他们从未有过代表，因为该镇实行全市选举，且（该市）从未选出过有色人种。现在（在司法部介入后），市政府里终于有了一位有色人种官员。我只是不知道这种工作是否还能恢复，这让人感到非常沮丧。”
Over the past 12 months, lawyers within the Voting Section have been suing states to access their unredacted voter rolls, as part of what critics fear is the administration’s broader push to prevent large swathes of the population from voting. So far, the courts have pushed back, but Trump and his allies appear intent on pushing these policies through no matter what. And with the November midterm elections coming up, former DOJ lawyers are deeply concerned. 在过去12个月里，投票部门的律师一直在起诉各州，要求获取其未经删减的选民名册。批评人士担心，这是本届政府更广泛计划的一部分，旨在阻止大量民众参与投票。到目前为止，法院已经驳回了这些诉求，但特朗普及其盟友似乎执意要强行推行这些政策。随着11月中期选举的临近，前司法部律师们深感忧虑。
Read more about the dismantling of this once-storied corner of the US government, and let me know what you think in the comments. 阅读更多关于这个曾经声名显赫的美国政府部门被拆解的内容，并在评论区告诉我你的看法。
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