美国国家公共电台 NPR Federal Court Asked To Scrap Georgia's 27,000 Electronic Voting Machines

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Paperless voting machines are having their day in court today in Georgia. A federal judge is weighing whether the state should use paper ballots² instead of the electronic voting machines in November or whether all that would just create unnecessary chaos³. Johnny Kauffman of member station WABE is following this and joins us now from Atlanta. So Johnny, who filed the case, and what are they worried about?

JOHNNY KAUFFMAN, BYLINE⁴: This case comes from a few Georgia voters and election security advocates here. And they brought the case because Georgia is one of 14 states that uses these touch-screen voting machines. They don't produce a paper trail. And so if hackers⁵ manipulate vote totals or something else goes wrong, you can't do a recount or audit⁶. And the plaintiffs say this undermines the state's interest in preventing voter fraud. It makes people less confident in the election. And they're like, we have these competitive midterms coming up. This is really urgent. There are some big races in Georgia, too. I think also there's the broader context - right? - of, you know, this news that Russian hackers targeted the election systems in 2016. And that brought a lot of attention and sort of energy behind this lawsuit⁷.

MARTIN: Right. So what our state election officials saying? I mean, do they think paper's a good idea?

KAUFFMAN: Well, the top election official in Georgia is Secretary of State Brian Kemp. He also happens to be a Republican running for governor. He will be on the ballot¹ whether it's paper or electronic, right? And for years, Kemp has faced a lot of questions about how he's handled election security. The most relevant example comes from - right around the 2016 election, there was this website overseen⁸ by a state contractor⁹ that was unsecured. And basically, open to the public were passwords from poll workers, voter registration¹⁰ records. Kemp blames the contractor for that. But whatever exactly happened, the incident did not reassure¹¹ people about Georgia's election security. Also Kemp rejected help from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security twice that was helped to bolster¹², you know, Georgia's defenses. Other states were offered this stuff, too. Despite all this - right? - Kemp insists that Georgia's elections are secure. But when it comes to the lawsuit, he says switching to paper ballots right now - and he told me this - he said it would be, quote, "an absolute disaster."

MARTIN: I mean, would it be? I mean, it does seem, like, kind of short notice to switch two months before an election.

KAUFFMAN: It's really short notice. And, you know, Georgians can already vote on paper by requesting an absentee ballot in the mail. So what the plaintiffs in this case want to do - these voters and advocates - is expand that absentee ballot system, this paper system, as an alternative to the electronic machines. Some ideas they have would be sending out absentee ballots to the entire state, supplying them at polling places on Election Day. Whatever - if the judge decides to throw out the electronic machines, it would probably be up to them to decide. But election officials here like Lynn Bailey, who's from Richmond County, east of Atlanta - they're worried about this. And she says - Bailey does - that switching to paper ballots so close to Election Day would lead to long lines, confusion, lower turnout and would be expensive.

LYNN BAILEY: We are in the throes of full steam ahead with this election. It would be a big distraction¹³ to make such a change this close in.

KAUFFMAN: One thing to note about Georgia is that we have a lot of counties here - 159 counties. A lot of people would say that's too many counties. And most are even smaller than Richmond County where Bailey is. So it's these smaller counties Bailey is worried about. They don't have as many resources. Making this switch would be a lot harder for them. So if the judge does throw out the voting machines, it's going to create a lot of scrambling¹⁴ and questions about how exactly to do it before November 6.

MARTIN: All right, Johnny Kauffman with member station WABE in Atlanta - thanks so much, Johnny. We appreciate it.

KAUFFMAN: You're welcome.

(SOUNDBITE OF TESK'S "GREEN STAMPS")

1 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

2 ballots   

n.投票表决( ballot的名词复数 )；选举；选票；投票总数v.（使）投票表决( ballot的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• They're counting the ballots. 他们正在计算选票。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The news of rigged ballots has rubbed off much of the shine of their election victory. 他们操纵选票的消息使他们在选举中获得的胜利大为减色。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 hackers   

n.计算机迷( hacker的名词复数 )；私自存取或篡改电脑资料者，电脑“黑客”

参考例句：

• They think of viruses that infect an organization from the outside.They envision hackers breaking into their information vaults. 他们考虑来自外部的感染公司的病毒，他们设想黑客侵入到信息宝库中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Arranging a meeting with the hackers took weeks againoff-again email exchanges. 通过几星期电子邮件往来安排见面，他们最终同意了。 来自互联网

6 audit   

v.审计；查帐；核对；旁听

参考例句：

• Each year they audit our accounts and certify them as being true and fair.他们每年对我们进行账务审核，以确保其真实无误。
• As usual,the yearly audit will take place in December.跟往常一样，年度审计将在十二月份进行。

7 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

8 overseen   

v.监督，监视( oversee的过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was overseen stealing the letters. 他被人撞见在偷信件。 来自辞典例句
• It will be overseen by ThomasLi, director of IBM China Research Laboratory. 该实验室由IBM中国研究院院长李实恭(ThomasLi)引导。 来自互联网

9 contractor   

n.订约人，承包人，收缩肌

参考例句：

• The Tokyo contractor was asked to kick $ 6000 back as commission.那个东京的承包商被要求退还6000美元作为佣金。
• The style of house the contractor builds depends partly on the lay of the land.承包商所建房屋的式样，有几分要看地势而定。

10 registration   

n.登记，注册，挂号

参考例句：

• Marriage without registration is not recognized by law.法律不承认未登记的婚姻。
• What's your registration number?你挂的是几号？

11 reassure   

v.使放心，使消除疑虑

参考例句：

• This seemed to reassure him and he continued more confidently.这似乎使他放心一点，于是他更有信心地继续说了下去。
• The airline tried to reassure the customers that the planes were safe.航空公司尽力让乘客相信飞机是安全的。

12 bolster   

n.枕垫；v.支持，鼓励

参考例句：

• The high interest rates helped to bolster up the economy.高利率使经济更稳健。
• He tried to bolster up their morale.他尽力鼓舞他们的士气。

13 distraction   

n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐

参考例句：

• Total concentration is required with no distractions.要全神贯注，不能有丝毫分神。
• Their national distraction is going to the disco.他们的全民消遣就是去蹦迪。

14 scrambling   

v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Scrambling up her hair, she darted out of the house. 她匆忙扎起头发，冲出房去。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• She is scrambling eggs. 她正在炒蛋。 来自《简明英汉词典》