Our Viewpoint: The process works

This month I was asked to participate in the post election audit process for the county. I’ve been on the other side of the table for every part of local elections, observing everything from voting machine testing to ballot counting by machine and hand counts, to recounts and audits. But I’ve never been anything more than an observer.

With the post election audit, the Secretary of State’s office literally rolls a dice to determine which races and which precincts will be hand counted. Then the local elections office has election workers sit in a room and hand count the ballots for those precincts to see if the count matches the machine counts. This year, precinct 6 in Plains and precinct 9 in Dixon were included in the audit, as were several races.

We hand counted the votes for president, U.S. Senator, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Clerk of the Supreme Court, and then SD 45 in Plains and HD 91 in Dixon.

It was a long process. It took seven hours to go through all the races. Election workers sat in groups of three, with one person calling out the votes of each ballot and then two people tallying. All the numbers had to match up. Our group recounted Plains precinct 6. Once we got done counting and recounting and recounting again, Election Administrator Lisa Wadsworth checked our numbers against the machine tally. We were off by one vote in almost every race. I like solving puzzles, and I wasn’t satisfied with being one vote off. Why? Because I’ve been in the room every election night since I bought the Ledger, watching ballots being counted. I’ve watched as our trained elections staff follows protocols, explains what is happening at each step, and accurately resolves any issues with the trained election judges in the room.

Eventually, I found the missing ballot still in the ballot box. The locked and sealed ballot box we opened that contained the precinct 6 ballots also housed precinct 7 and when I re-opened the boxed, the missing ballot was right there on top. We recounted all the races again and our counts were spot on. Precinct 9 had fewer ballots, which made their recounts a bit easier, and all of their numbers matched the machine counts. The state allows a very small margin of error, but it was rewarding to have numbers match and know that our election process is accurate.

Do other places in the state and country have issues with elections? You bet. But I have always boasted about the integrity I see with our Sanders County elections staff. If an issue arises, they address it and work to fix it. One night several years ago the voting machine broke and a technician had to come literally in the middle of the night to fix it. The issue was addressed quickly and efficiently. It was a long night for election judges and staff, but they stayed to finish the process and ensure it was done right.

Kudos to our county elections staff and the effort they put in to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the process locally. I would encourage everyone to take a deeper look at the process. Stop by on election night and watch ballots be counted or become a trained election judge and be involved on election day. It’s an incredible process and I was proud to be involved from a different angle this year. -Annie Wooden