Jamie Shew, the chief election officer in Douglas County, Kansas, took queries recently from anxious counterpart(职位相当的人；同行)s in other counties: did he have a barcode guy? His is the only county, out of 105 in Kansas, that prints unique barcodes on all postal-ballot envelopes. That put him in compliance with(符合；遵照) a rule issued last month by the United States Postal Service (USPS). His colleagues feared they had just a few weeks to follow suit(效仿；跟着做) before sending out ballots for the midterms in November. Election officials in Democratic and Republican states alike were calling the rule unworkable(行不通的；不切实际的).
堪萨斯州道格拉斯县首席选举官杰米·休最近接到了其他县同行们焦虑的询问：他有没有专门负责条形码的人？在堪萨斯州105个县中，他是唯一一个在所有邮寄选票信封上打印唯一条形码的县。这使他符合美国邮政总局（USPS）上月发布的一项规定。他的同行们担心，在11月中期选举寄出选票之前，他们只有几周时间跟进。民主党和共和党各州的选举官员都称这项规定行不通。
On September 14th the Supreme Court came to the rescue(出手相救；解围) and blocked it, although it had been drafted at the direction of Donald Trump. Despite avail(利用；使用)ing himself of it, the president despise(鄙视；蔑视)s mail voting, a method more commonly used by Democrats than Republicans and one he claims, without evidence, is rife with(充斥着；充满) fraud. In an executive order in March he tried to turn the USPS from a mere courier(快递员；信使) into an arbiter(仲裁者；决定者) of who gets to vote by post.
9月14日，最高法院出手阻止了这项规定，尽管该规定是按照唐纳德·特朗普的指示起草的。尽管特朗普本人也使用邮寄投票，但他却鄙视这种方式——民主党人比共和党人更常使用它，而且他毫无根据地声称这种方式充斥着舞弊。在3月的一项行政命令中，他试图将美国邮政总局从一个单纯的快递机构变成决定谁可以邮寄投票的仲裁者。
Instead, the president’s bid(努力；企图) to intervene(干预；介入) in the midterms met the same fate(遭遇同样的命运) as his other attempts which—by executive order, lawsuits and proposed legislation—have sought to reshape how Americans vote. None has held up(站得住脚；成立). But the president has sown confusion and created a scapegoat(替罪羊) if Republicans lose the House or Senate this November.
相反，总统干预中期选举的努力遭遇了与其他尝试相同的命运——这些尝试通过行政命令、诉讼和立法提案，试图重塑美国人的投票方式。但没有一项站得住脚。不过，总统已经播下了混乱的种子，并且如果共和党在11月失去众议院或参议院，他也已经找好了替罪羊。