Voting machine questions answered

by Tom Eggensperger

What's inside the county's ballot tabulation machine?

That was a question posed to Sanders County Elections Supervisor McKenna Wallace, and last week she held a demonstration of the machine for the annual test of its accuracy for this week's school and special district elections.

The session, which is mandated by law, attracted about two dozen observers to the commissioners' conference room. Wallace told the group the purpose of the demonstration was twofold. First to verify that the machine was working properly and second to show interested residents how the actual vote counting process is held.

She explained that a spreadsheet is prepared that includes various voting combinations for each of the ballots voted in the various school districts. Then actual" test" ballots are marked according to the spreadsheet matrix. "We create the test so there is no bias," she explained, "and ESS [the counting machine company] has no knowledge of what we do. It ensures accuracy in the process," she continued.

Then she and her staff member, Cassie Ward, put each group of voted test ballots through the machine and explained the process. Additionally, ballots marked by machines developed to help individuals with special needs, were tabulated separately due to their size.

Wallace showed how the machine separates ballots according to certain factors. Most ballots go to the bottom tray as correctly read, while a middle tray takes those that for some reason need additional attention, such as stray marks, voting for two many candidates or a write-in vote. These latter ballots then go to a resolution table of three judges, generally one from each party and an Independent, and this panel must agree on the perceived intent of the voter before a ballot can then be prepared for reinsertion into the count.

In continuing with the official testing of the machine, Wallace asked for two volunteers from the audience and then compared the printout of results from the test ballot counts with the original matrix spreadsheet. All results matched exactly. That exercise resulted in a signed affidavit of the results which was to be sent to the Montana Secretary of State as verification of the test and its accuracy.

The apparent most prevalent concern of some viewers was the possibility that election counts could be tampered with. McKenna explained that no network or Internet connections are ever part of the process, to guard against any potential hacking or alteration of results.

In response to requests to open the machine, so the inner workings could be viewed, she showed that the machine is always sealed with security tapes that would have to be broken and removed to gain access to the workings. Then a key, that is kept separate in the vault of the courthouse, opens the actual compartment. A few of the viewers took the opportunity to peruse the insides of the machine once it was opened. Afterwards, Wallace closed and locked the machine and new signed security tapes were reinstalled.

Sanders County has used the Election Systems and Software (ESS) equipment for about 20 years. The current model is the DS850, capable of reading both sides of a 14-inch ballot at a rate of 300 ballots per minute. The advantage, as explained when the original system was put into service, was the speed in getting the votes counted in the primary and general elections and the accuracy of the vote results.