Board of Elections inspects county voting machines

Following allegations by some losing candidates in the May Primary of voting machine malfunctions and possible rigging of the machines, one might have expected a big turnout at the old post office Friday morning as the Whitley County Board of Elections inspected voting machines.
Aside from the board and two county clerk’s office employees, only one member of the local media showed up at the start of the inspections at 8 a.m.
“We have the election commissioners and my assistant, Anita, and all the other concerned people that are here this morning that I am sure just haven’t showed up yet,” Whitley County Clerk Tom Rains said about 8 a.m.
“I have invited candidates to this every time. They must have a little trust in me because they rarely ever comes to the inspections. We welcome everyone to come.”
By 9 a.m. Friday, the only other person that showed up for the inspections was incoming County Clerk Kay Schwartz, who is unopposed Tuesday.
In light of the complaints, Rains admits that he was a little surprised that no one else came for the voting machine inspections.
“People spend their hard earned money. It costs a lot of money to be in these election races. A lot of times when you spend a lot of money, it is cutting into your heart when you are not successful,” Rains said.
“They spent a lot of money, and everybody can’t win. I understand their feelings.”
Rains said he and the other members of the board of elections were doing the same things they do every time prior to an election, which is inspecting the voting equipment before it is delivered to the precincts.
During the inspection, election commissioners checked a printout taped to the front of each machine by Harp Enterprises, which certified that the totals on each machine are set to zero for each candidate prior to voting starting.
They then plugged in each machine to see if it was working and checked to see that seals were in place on the backs of the machines. One seal has to be broken before voting can begin on the machines, and another has to be broken in order to close the machines, and get the results out.
Board of elections members then put the machines in test mode, which lit up the lights beside every name on the ballot in addition to the buttons one would press in order to cast a write-in vote.
They also checked to ensure that machines for a particular precinct contained the correct face ballot
The nearly 80 voting machines throughout the county will sport one of 11 different ballots. For instance, some Williamsburg residents will vote for mayor and city council in addition to voting for members of the Williamsburg Independent Board of Education.
However, the city limits and the city school district aren’t necessarily the same, and other people, who can vote for mayor and city council, may be in the Whitley County school district instead.
In addition, the county has four magisterial districts, and five county school board districts, but only two seats are up for election this year for county school board.
“We have to check those ballot faces to make sure each magistrate district is correct, and that each magistrate running is in the proper order,” Rains said. “The inspections usually take us all day.”
He said that the commission has found mistakes over the years ranging from misspelled names to candidates being listed in the wrong order on the ballot, which have needed to be fixed before shipping the machines out to the polls.
For the November General Election, in non-partisan races on the ballot, positions are determined by a random draw.
In the case of partisan races where there are Republicans and Democrats running, the candidate order on the ballot is determined by which party is in control of the White House.
For instance, because a Republican is president, Hal Rogers’ name appears on the ballot first in the United States Representative race, rather than his Democratic challenger, Kenneth Stepp.
If a Democrat were president, then Stepp’s name would appear first followed by Rogers’ name, even though Rogers is the incumbent.
In addition to checking for the big things, election officials also checked to see that each voting machine is equipped with an ink pen, which is chained to the interior of the machine for write-in votes.
Rains noted the pens with chains that county officials are required to use in the machines cost about $3 each. At least two machines were found that need new pens.
The inspection process also involved making sure that each precinct has things, such as signs indicating parking for disabled voters, and American flags for tables in the voting precincts.
There are about 20 items that have to go out to each precinct.