REPORTAGE
United States: before the midterms, electoral officials cut short suspicions about the vote
An early voting clerk and site supervisor for the Cameron County, Texas Department of Elections scans an identification badge to log into the county's election platform Friday, Oct. 21, 2022 (Illustrative image).
AP - Denise Cathey
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
The midterm elections, the
midterms
, are approaching in the United States.
Since 2020, the theories of cheating instrumentalized thanks to voting machines have been denied, with evidence in support many times over.
However, electoral fraud still stirs up the right-wing wing of the Republican party.
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With our correspondent in Houston,
Thomas Harms
Proponents of the right-wing Republican Party refer to France where all ballots are on paper and counted manually.
They accuse voting machines of rigging results, being easily hacked, and leading to dubious elections.
To dismantle these conspiracies, electoral administrations are doing what they can.
Election officials have been preparing for months, to cut off any suspicion.
On social networks, conspiracy circles claim that voting machines can be hacked through their connection to the internet.
A rumor.
“
Voting machines in Texas are never connected to the internet.
In fact, to be certified, they must not even have the possibility of being connected to the Internet
”, explains John Scott, the person in charge of the elections in Texas, called here Secretary of State.
Guided tours of the election premises
In Bexar County, which includes the city of San Antonio, the electoral administration invited members of the parties, Republicans, Democrats, to their offices for a guided tour.
“
The only machine that communicates with our office is the one that registers voters.
This machine is not a voting machine, and is not connected to them.
She only counts the participation for the office where she is
, ”explains James Huerta, who supervises the counting room.
To transmit the vote counts, the only method is to use a specially formatted USB key that can only be read on certain computers.
On the evening of the vote, these keys are brought, by car, to the only counting room in the constituency.
“
This room is completely isolated.
There is no connection with the outside world.
So when you hear that the elections are hacked, that the votes are rigged, it's not true.
»
A few days before the midterm elections, John Scott, a Republican, has only two words to sum up his state of mind: very confident.
►Also listen: United States: disinformation is in full swing before the midterm elections
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