Election Administrator Rockey holds public voting test ahead of May primaries
- Nathaniel Smith | Editor-in-Chief
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 13 minutes ago
On March 17, Election Administrator Stephanie Rockey held a public test of the voting machines intended for use during the upcoming primary election on May 5. This is a test performed before every primary and general election to ensure that the machines are functioning properly for a smooth and fair voting process.
What we’re doing with this public test is essentially a mock-election,” began Rockey. “Our goal is for every candidate to receive one vote for this mock-election. We have the ballots marked as such.”
She went on to explain that they also have a blank ballot, called a “protest ballot,” and an overvote ballot. A ballot would be considered an overvote ballot, for instance, if you were to vote for two auditors. The auditor position is filled by a single individual, therefore only one vote can be submitted for it.
“Those situations do occur in elections,” she said. “We’ll show you on the equipment what happens when those ballots are scanned through. Right now, we are doing a zero report.”
Rockey explained that an officer at each polling location is instructed to print a zero report and verify that the voting machines are at zero before the polls are opened to the public, ensuring no candidate has an unfair advantage.
After all of the test ballots had been filled out, Rockey printed the zero report and handed them to Election Board Members Marcia Grassmyer (R) and Warren Jones (D) to be certified. Rockey then turned her attention to the election scanners in the room.
“These are the scanners that are set up at the polling locations that actually scan the ballot,” she said. “On election day, you will see privacy screens on each side. We have not done that for today, but these are set up strategically at the polling locations. An inspector and judge are there monitoring that everything is going smoothly.”
Rockey then introduced the third machine in the room, which serves as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant machine for those with handicaps and in need of additional assistance. It allows people to make their voting decisions using the screen of the machine, and it then prints out a filled out ballot to be submitted to a scanner.
“Whatever their needs are, they can use this machine to help create a ballot,” said Rockey.
Following this, Rockey began to scan each of the filled out ballots. As previously mentioned, this stack of mock-ballots intentionally contained a protest ballot and an overvote ballot. The machine caught these mistakes and displayed an alert screen, as intended.
After all the ballots had been scanned, the final steps in the election day process included printing the final tally sheets and shutting the machines down.
“[The final tally sheet] is just a verification of the vote totals,” said Rockey. “The actual results from that precinct are on the internal drive. If we have a scanner that we didn’t use, we still process that drive so that I know on election day what drives went out, and what drives came in.”
Just then, one of the machines malfunctioned, further proving the importance of a voting test prior to each election. It was promptly replaced by another scanner on site for the sake of the test, but it will be sent for maintenance ahead of the primary election.
“This is why we have spares,” Rockey remarked. “If any of these go out on election day, we have backups.”
Following a successful tally on the replacement machine, the public voting test was concluded. All election scanner machines go through the same testing process to ensure a fair and accurate election.
