With misinformation about the voting process fogging the public’s perception of the voting process, the Jackson County Board of Elections provided an opportunity to watch the Express Vote machines be set up in preparation for elections.
All Express Vote machines and DS200 tabulators are tested before being staged for transportation to the early voting locations.
Each precinct has a set number of voting machines that will be available for voters which ranges from three to six Express Vote machines and one DS200 tabulator each.
For every voting machine and tabulator there is a flash drive with all the required information for that voting period. The Express Vote flash drives are programmed with the ballots for each voting precinct. The DS200 flash drives are programed to count the ballots cast and to accept a specific ballot based on its precinct.
Each precinct has a set of unique passcodes for election day to ensure no machines can be tampered with during the election process.
A set of blank paper ballots are cast and counted by the DS200. Meanwhile, Express Vote ballots that do not have any votes are skipped through to test the machine’s marking ability. During the test of the voting machines, the accessibility features are also tested to make sure they are fully operational.
Once the test is complete and the appropriate number of predicted ballots is counted, the machines are emptied out and locked up.
Before locking voting machines, the blue boxes inside tabulators that catch inserted ballots are emptied and double checked to ensure no test ballots are left. Once the machines are locked up, they are not opened until the votes are counted.
Tabulators and voting machines are locked by an orange tie that is logged by Board of Elections workers and checked in the morning to ensure no tampering has occurred overnight.
The same process is followed once the election has started. The Chief Republican and Democratic judges seal and secure the tabulators at the closing of the polls and verify there was no tampering at the opening of the polls the next morning.
Tested and verified tabulators and voting machines are kept in the Board of Elections conference room where they are put in a red cage designated for each precinct. The process of transporting the voting machines is confidential to ensure the safety and integrity of the voting process.
Anyone can watch the process of setting up the voting machines. The Jackson County GOP chairman, Keith Blaine, and the Jackson County Democratic Party Vice chair sat in and watched the process unfold.
Trey Franks, the election equipment and operations analyst, explained the process to each of the party representatives so that transparency is maintained.
There are many safeguards to ensure the election process remains secure. Transparency is the key to democracy and secure elections. The local board of elections will always explain the process and give citizens an inside look at how things operate.
