Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30 minute program from the Voice of America.

I'm Ashley Thompson.

And I'm Mario Ritter Jr.

This program is designed for English learners

so we speak a little slower and we use words and phrases especially written for people learning English.

Today, Jill Robbins tells us how one American state is testing its voting machines ahead of next month's elections.

Anna Mateo and Andrew Smith present this week's education report.

Finally, we hear today's lesson of the day.

But first. Elections officials across Pennsylvania have begun

testing their voting machines using a method known as logic and accuracy testing.

It will be important to know how the machines will perform under the pressure of the

hard use they will experience during the election.

All election equipment used by Pennsylvania counties is put through this pre-election stress test.

A stress test is a way to find out how something performs under pressure.

Pennsylvania law requires all its counties to conduct logic and accuracy testing before any election.

All other states do similar testing.

Forest Lehman is Director of Elections and Registration in one Pennsylvania County.

Really, we are testing the voting system end to end, he said.

It's almost like we're running a small scale election.

During logic and accuracy testing, election officials create sample ballots.

Some of these are made to fail or cause errors in the machines. The officials put the samples through the machines. The officials put the samples through the machines to make sure they are

counting votes accurately and noting errors. Mark Lendeman is Director of Policy and Strategy at verified Voting, a group that studies

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