Montgomery County’s ballot machines have passed the test for the election.
No problems were encountered during the required public test of the equipment Friday at the Montgomery County Courthouse.
With election board members and a representative from the equipment vendor looking on, elections officials powered up a row of voting and tabulation machines in the Board of Commissioners meeting room.
State law requires the county to inspect at least three of the electronic devices voters will use to cast a ballot. Seven ballot machines and four tabulators were publicly tested, and the clerk’s office says the rest of the equipment is checked before the start of voting.
“We test every machine,” clerk Karyn Douglas said.
The testing process requires officials to manually enter a batch of ballots to determine that a predetermined number of test votes are correctly counted.
Officials must also test at least one ballot for each office that has an overvote to check that the machines will reject the extra tallies.
Ten new ballot machines are being rolled out this fall. The equipment works the same way as the existing technology, but make it easier for poll workers to call up a voter’s ballot. The machines do not allow voters to overvote.
Another 50 of the original machines will also be deployed. Each voting site will have 15 machines, the same number as June’s primary.
Cotton swabs, stylists and finger gloves are available for using the touchscreens, which will be sanitized between each voter.
Early voting begins Oct. 6. Election Day is Nov. 3.
The 4-H Building will be open for voting from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday until Oct. 30 and from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the two Saturdays before Election Day. The day before Election Day, the hours are 8 a.m. to noon.
Rock Point Church will host early voting from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 24 and Oct. 31 and from 2 to 7 p.m. Oct. 26-30.
