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LWV Observe Election
Audit
By Jan Boyer
The Board of Elections had two visitors when the Board audited the
November election ballots. League of Women Voters
representatives, Becky Reier and Jan Boyer, used their observation
privilege to sit in on the state required ballot audit.
The Board of Election officials and the audit technicians welcomed the
observers and helped them understand the process and each step of the
audit. The whole audit was an eye opener for the LWV observers.
The public is informed about an upcoming audit by radio, newspaper and
posters and has an opportunity to observe the audit and ascertain that
all state guidelines are followed. Those guidelines, which are
quite extensive, are very carefully followed. All aspects of the
ballot system, from voting at the individual precincts to counting
ballots have equally extensive requirements, leading up to the final
audit.
Except when they are locked in a secure room, the ballots are never
handled by less than two people, one Democrat and one Republican.
A custody sheet, which is a document of public record, must be
signed by both parties each time the ballots changes hands. Even
to get into the locked area where the ballots are stored requires that
a member of each party be present, each using a key to access the
ballots.
This requirement carries over into the audit process. Four teams,
each made up of one Republic and one Democrat, are used to recount the
ballots to confirm an accurate count. The teams are made up of
Board of Election members. If needed, poll workers may be
used. The state requires that 3 % of the votes be audited.
In the case of Darke County, that is 574 ballots. The precincts
to be audited are chosen at random to furnish at least that
number.
Votes for the gubernatorial candidates were chosen for audit.
Cancelled ballots or ballots with no vote cast for that office were not
counted. Precinct # 2 and Precinct # 22 were drawn to be audited,
totaling over 700 votes.. Sealed bags containing the machine
canisters as well as absentee and provisional ballots for those two
precincts were opened in the presence of the audit teams, Board of
Election officials and the site director. Each step was well
documented.
The two LWV observers learned the details of ballot handling leading up
to the mandated audit. The site director, who is the head of the
consulting technical company, explained that the machines and software,
by DeBolt, are set up the day before elections, with the custody
sheet prepared, the memory cards and paper installed. Each
memory card in each machine is tested to avoid malfunction on election
day.
The memory cards in each machine are a record of all votes cast and are
used to furnish this information to the master computer as well as
remain as a record for each machine’s canister. So, the
verification has a 3 part check: (1) the computer tally, total and that
of each individual machine, (2) the memory card for each canister, and
(3) the paper tape with each recorded vote. In case a paper tape
is destroyed or damaged, the memory card can be used to duplicate the
paper tape.
On election day, the tech staff starts the machines and they sign off
their custody of the machines to the poll workers who then take custody
of the machines. At the end of the election day, the poll workers
shut down the machines, remove the memory card with canisters, seal
them in the ballot bag and two of the workers, one Republican and one
Democrat, together take the bag to the Board of Election Office to be
locked up.
At this point they sign off on the custody sheet and the BOE
staff takes custody of the precinct bag. The vendor, the
consultants, take information from the memory cards to input individual
machine, precinct total and county totals into the computer, after
which the cards are locked with the bags The state requires the
count to be verified by the audit using the memory card and the paper
trail.
The technical consultants who work with the BOE are a separate entity,
hired by Darke County BOE, from the machine/software vendor and
are hired locally for their expertise. This separation between
the consultants and the machine vendors is important because if the
machine vendor furnished its own tech, the vendor could possibly fail
to report some machine malfunction to protect its reputation. By
having independent consultants, there is a double check on machine
reliability.
The observers learned that the Board of Elections take every precaution
to help citizens vote their choices. Upon request, the BOE sends
a team, Democrat and Republican, to nursing homes so that invalid
residents may vote on a paper ballot, exercising their right
to vote. Also, the names of the candidates are rotated so that
the same name is not at the top of each ballot.
For the actual audit each of the four teams reviews every ballot
recorded by a voting machine, Their total count is compared to the
voting card count and to the master computer count for
verification. In the case of the recent Darke County audit,
all ballots were accounted for. The absentee ballots were
verified in much the same way, again by the audit teams, each having a
Democrat and a Republican.
The League of Women Voters observers were very impressed with the
openness with which the Board of Elections officials and the
technicians answered their many questions. Their observation
experience was one that all citizens would benefit from. Our
Board of Elections deserve our trust for their careful handling of our
votes.
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