三家公司掌控了美國的大選。Election Systems & Software、Dominion Voting Systems和Hart InterCivic擁有美國投票機市場92%的份額，在政府急需在2020年大選前升級投票系統的背景下，它們又將大賺一筆。

2016年大選時，有16個州之下的縣里，在投票時使用了沒有備份記錄的無紙化設備。美國國土安全部后來警示稱，這其中有6個州的選舉系統成為了黑客攻擊目標。現在人們普遍認識到，無紙化設備是最不安全的。一些州政府控制了投票方式，另有一些州將決定權交給地方政府，但在多數州里，官員們試圖購買新的投票設備。

紐約大學布倫南司法中心選舉改革項目的主管勞倫斯·諾登說：“這種過渡仍然在進行，但我希望每一個成為競選戰場的州，都有投票的紙質備份?！敝Z登預測，在2020年大選中將有90%的選票有紙質備份。

一些安全專家，例如國家風險解決方案公司的首席執行官丹尼爾·瓦格納，則認為做到這些還不夠。

“在我們的選舉過程中，有著巨大的落差和不一致性，而地方、州和聯邦政府做得太少，也太遲，沒能改變什么，特別是2020年大選又要來臨?！蓖吒窦{說。

事實上，美國國會還未將提升2020大選投票安全的資金分配到位。

還有一年就要大選了，各個州都在增強威脅評估和大選后的審計計劃，但自2016年以來最急需的改變在哪里？市民和官員們都深深地感到大選投票機制的脆弱。（財富中文網）

本文另一版本登載于《財富》雜志2019年11月刊，標題為《確保2020大選的安全》。

譯者：宣峰

Three companies control the fate of United States elections. Election Systems & Software, Dominion Voting Systems, and Hart InterCivic dominate 92% of the voting machine market, standing to make bank as states rush to update their systems before the looming 2020 election.

In 2016, counties in 16 states used paperless equipment without backup records. The Department of Homeland Security later notified six of those states that hackers targeted their systems. There’s now widespread recognition that paperless machines are the least secure. Some state governments control voting methods, others delegate the decision to local authority, but in most of those states, officials are moving to purchase new machines.

“The transition is still happening, but I’m hopeful every battleground state will have a paper backup of every vote,” said Lawrence Norden, director of the Election Reform Program at the NYU Brennan Center For Justice. Norden predicts 90% of votes will have paper backups in 2020.

Some security experts like Daniel Wagner, CEO of Country Risk Solutions, still don’t think it’s enough.

“There are massive gaps and inconsistencies in our electoral process, and the local, state, and federal governments are doing too little, too late to make a meaningful difference, especially by 2020,” Wagner said.

Indeed, the United States Congress has yet to allocate funds to improving security for the 2020 election.

A year out, states are increasing threat assessments and plans for post-election audits. But the greatest change since 2016? Citizens and officials alike are viscerally aware of their vulnerability.

A version of this article appears in the November 2019 issue of Fortune with the headline “Securing the Vote for 2020.”