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Let the Gerrymandering (and the Legal Battles) Begin
让选区划分(和法律斗争)开始吧
The Census Bureau will release long-awaited district-level results on Thursday, setting off what is expected to be the most bruising, litigious and consequential redistricting battle in a generation, with control of Congress hanging in the balance and gerrymandering threatening to lock in quasi-permanent majorities in state legislatures across the country.
人口普查局将于周四公布期待已久的区级结果,这将掀起一代人中最激烈、诉讼最多、影响最大的选区重划之战,国会的控制权悬而未决,选区划分有可能锁定全国各州立法机构中的准永久多数席位。
With Democrats clinging to a slim margin in the House of Representatives, control of the chamber in 2022 could be decided through congressional redistricting alone. Republican-leaning states like Texas and Florida are adding new seats through reapportionment, and G.O.P.-dominated state legislatures will steer much more of the redistricting process, allowing them to draw more maps than Democrats.
随着民主党人在众议院的微弱优势,2022年对众议院的控制权可能仅通过国会的重新划分就能决定。得克萨斯州和佛罗里达州等偏向共和党的州正在通过重新分配增加新的席位,而由共和党主导的州立法机构将在重新划分选区的过程中掌握更多的权力,使他们能够比民主党人绘制更多的地图。
In a matter of days — if history is any guide — as soon as state officials can crunch census data files into their more modern formats, an intense process of mapmaking, political contention, legal wrangling, well-financed opinion-shaping and ornery public feedback will unfold in statehouses, courthouses, on the air and even on the streets in regions of special contention. The redistricting fight arrives amid one of the most protracted assaults on voting access since the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965, an effort that has made the right to vote among the most divisive issues in American politics.
在几天之内—如果历史有任何指导意义的话—只要各州官员能够将人口普查数据文件压缩成更现代的格式,那么在有特殊争议的地区,一个激烈的地图绘制、政治争论、法律争论、资金雄厚的舆论塑造和愤怒的公众反馈的过程将在州议会、法院、广播甚至是街道上展开。重新划分选区的斗争是在1965年通过《投票权法案》以来对投票权最持久的攻击之一,这一努力使投票权成为美国政治中最具分歧的问题。