PBS高端访谈:内华达初选的最新进展（在线收听）

Hari Sreenivasan: For more on how the early voting is working today and what's ahead, Megan Messerly, a reporter for the Nevada Independent joins us now from Las Vegas. So, why the long lines yesterday? What's happening today?

Megan Messerly: Right. So early voting kicked off yesterday. More than 11,800 was the estimate that the party gave to us of folks that turned out as of 5:00 p.m. Turnout was really high, so that contributed to the long lines. As well, democrats were planning on using this Google form-based check in sheet as part of the check in process that was supposed to streamline the data collection on the back end. That was taking a long time so some of the sites that experienced the longest lines where folks were waiting three, four hours, decided to actually forego that step of the process. And that ended up speeding things up a little bit yesterday.

Hari Sreenivasan: So what happens when they get in there? This is almost like a rank choice system that Maine is trying. Well, what are they what are they actually writing down?

Megan Messerly: That's correct. So essentially what what Democrats do when they show up to an early vote site, they check in their voter registration is checked against county voter roll. If they're not registered, they have same-day registration so they can actually just register onsite. Once they do that, they receive a paper scannable ballot. It's kind of like a scantron form where you bubble in your answers. You have to choose at least three preferences, up to five. The party says it will be scanning in this information into a cloud-based system and then, yes, distributed to their home precinct so that their votes will be counted just as if they had been there in person. And that's how they will obtain that data on the actual day of the caucus to bring in that early vote information.

Hari Sreenivasan: OK. Everyone's becoming kind of a sideline geek here and trying to figure out what's the app they're using, what's happening, is the technology hacker-proof, et cetera. What are the kind of steps that the local DNC or the Democratic Party is taking?

Megan Messerly: Right. So party officials here have told me that they're working with security experts. You know, they brought in additional folks in the wake of what happened in Iowa with their reporting day app. They also say that they're testing the system, the caucus day system that is, with volunteers that are both experienced, they've run a caucus before, and with volunteers who are first time volunteers. They want to make sure that this system is usable for everyone, sort of regardless of their experience level.

Hari Sreenivasan: One of the surprising stories is, well, a non-endorsement. The Culinary Union, which is traditionally pretty powerful, has chosen to wait. How, how significant is that?

Megan Messerly: That's right. It's a really big deal, actually, here in Nevada. So the Culinary Union, they represent about 60,000 hotel workers, the ones on the Las Vegas Strip and all across the state. They're a politically powerful union. They're known for turning the tides in elections if they want to get involved and they want to get their folks out to vote. This endorsement is generally, uh, their non-endorsement, rather, is thought to be more hurtful toward Joe Biden, former vice president, in that he's had a longstanding relationship with the union. In fact, the union's secretary treasurer went so far as to describe him as a friend in their non-endorsement announcement. He was the only candidate that they mentioned by name. At the same time, they're deciding to really focus on their priorities. And one of those is making sure that a candidate that supports Medicare for all does not get passed. That's because the union runs their own health trust and they don't want to see that go away under a Medicare for all plan.

Hari Sreenivasan: And so are there any other contenders that see that as an opportunity?

Megan Messerly: Yes. So this is generally thought to be sort of leveling the playing field, especially among those candidates that are more moderate, they prefer the creation of a government-run public health insurance option versus just a single Medicare for all system. So this is generally thought to be a good thing for for Pete Buttigieg, it's thought to be a good thing for Amy Klobuchar. It sort of does level the playing field and now allows all of these campaigns really to go out and court union members as opposed to knowing that the union's hard at work, trying to get their folks out specifically to support one particular candidate.

Hari Sreenivasan: All right, Megan Messerly, thanks so much for joining us.

Megan Messerly: Thanks for having me on.

哈里·斯里尼瓦桑：关于今天初期投票进展如何以及未来的发展趋势，请听《内华达独立报》记者梅根从拉斯维加斯发回的报道。那么，可否请梅根先来向我们介绍一下为啥昨天排起了长长的队伍呢？今天发生了些什么情况呢？

梅根：好的。初期投票是昨天打响的。我们从民主党这边获得的估测数据是：截至到下午5点为止，有1.18多万人出现在投票现场。出席人数很多，所以这是现场出现长队的一个原因。与此同时，民主党计划将谷歌表格的勾选作为投票流程的一部分，这样可以简化后端的数据收集工作。这个过程花费了很长的时间，所以一部分投票点出现了长队，选民们要等上三四个小时，所以部分选民决定跳过流程的这一步。这样做的结果是稍微为昨天的流程加了一些速。

哈里·斯里尼瓦桑：那么实施了这个流程之后，情况如何呢？是这样的，缅因州实施的这个与等级选择制很像。他们想要记录些什么呢？

梅根：哈里，你的理解很对。民主党出现在初期投票点的时候会做些什么呢？他们会通过全国选民的名单来帮选民做登记。如果有没登记的选民，他们会在同一天做登记，也可以线上登记。等做完这些之后，选民会收到一张可扫描的票。有点像答题卡的感觉。选民必须要选择至少3位心仪的候选人，最多选5个。民主党说会把信息通过扫描录入一个云端系统，然后发到各自的选区进行计票，就像他们亲自去了现场一样。等初选投票的那天，他们也会通过这种方式来获取数据。

哈里·斯里尼瓦桑：好的，了解了。这时候，所有人都化身副业高手，试图弄清楚选民使用的应用程序、正在发生的情况、所使用的技术是否可以预防黑客等等。民主党全国委员会（DNC）和民主党采取了哪些措施呢？

梅根：没错。所以这里的一些民主党官员告诉我说他们正在跟安全专家合作。每日报告应用程序在爱荷华州的投票中起到了很大的作用，为他们带来了新的力量。他们也说他们正在测试选举日系统——参与其中的志愿者们是接触过这2种系统的人。因为他们之前有举办过投票，那一次的志愿者是第一批志愿者。他们想确保这个系统是每个人都可用的，无论是否有足够的经验。

哈里·斯里尼瓦桑：有一个让人吃惊的消息是无背书行为。烹饪协会之前权力很大，但现在却被选为要暂时等待。这件事的影响有多大呢？

梅根：确实有这么个事儿。这件事在内华达州影响很大。烹饪协会大概有6万名酒店员工，他们在分布在拉斯维加斯大道以及内华达州各处。他们的政治权力很大，只要他们想，就可以动员自己的员工去投票，从而在选举中起到翻云覆雨的作用。这次禁止的事儿对拜登的伤害比较大，因为拜登跟这家协会有源远流长的关系。实际上，该协会的财务负责人甚至还在非背书的声明中将拜登描述为朋友。这是该负责人唯一点名提到名字的候选人。与此同时，他们决定将注意力聚焦在当务之急上。其中一项当务之急是确保支持国家老年人医疗保险制度的候选人不会通过。这是因为该协会经营着自己的健康信托，他们不希望通过国家老年人医疗保险制度来运营。

哈里·斯里尼瓦桑：还有其他候选人有机会的吗？

梅根：有的。这次的竞选有点像是公平竞争的意思，尤其是对那些不温不火的候选人来说。他们更希望能创建一个由政府运营的公共卫生保险选择，与只通过国家老年人医疗保险制度来统领各个领域形成对比。所以，总体来说，这对于皮特是件好事，对艾米也是。现在有了公平竞争的环境，竞选活动百花齐放。一些法院联盟的成员也知道了该协会的情况，他们也在竭力让自己的员工出来支持某位特定的候选人。

哈里·斯里尼瓦桑：好的，梅根，谢谢你的报道。

梅根：谢谢邀请我。