Election officials tested all new voting equipment on Tuesday during a public election board meeting, and the public will have opportunities to try out the new equipment before they head to the polls.
The test was done ahead of early voting, which kicks off in about a month.
The Election Board voted Tuesday to shorten early voting to two weeks for this year’s primary election because it is a municipal, which typically draws fewer voters, said county clerk Trena McLaughlin.
The last day to register to vote in this year’s primary election is April 8. Voters will select representatives to serve in leadership roles in their cities or towns, and some — including people who do not live within a city or town — will vote on a Franklin schools referendum.
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As part of Tuesday’s test, McLaughlin, Cindy Rapp, the Democratic member of the election board, and Phil Barrow, a Republican member of the election board, voted multiple times in three different precincts on three different machines. They also kept track of their votes on paper.
A representative from MicroVote, the election vendor county officials recently hired to manage and provide equipment for this year’s elections, helped election board members tally those votes. MicroVote replaced longtime vendor Election Systems and Software. After tallying the votes, the representative helped election board members print, from each voting machine, a total for each of the three precincts they tested, and checked it against the system that tallies all votes to make sure there were no errors.
There were none.
Voting fraud and election tampering are issues of national concern, making the public tests an important step in the election process. But these tests aren’t new. It’s something that’s been done before every election for several years.
There was more at stake during this year’s test due to last year’s election failure, which led to an uphill battle over the last couple months to select and secure a new election vendor after the county decided to fire Election Systems and Software. The county fired the vendor for many reasons, including significant delays for voters on Election Day, and suggesting a workaround that broke state election laws.
After more than a month of debate over whether to change vendors and which one to go with, the county decided last month to have MicroVote run the entire election this year for an estimated $86,750 to rent equipment, software and services for the May and November elections only.
Election officials will hold three Community Days at three different locations where the public can stop by and learn the new equipment before they vote on it. This is the first time something like this has been offered. McLaughlin and two of her staff members will be available to answer questions during each of those sessions.
Despite having all new equipment, the voter will not experience many changes to the way they vote. The biggest difference is the new voting machines are not touchscreen. Voters will push buttons instead. The new machines also weigh less and are much faster, said Scott Henry, the county’s IT director, who has spent the last couple of weeks learning the ins and outs of the new machines and system.
County officials hope the new equipment improves wait times significantly this year. Setting up and turning on the system, as well as shutting it down, doesn’t take nearly as long as it did with the old machines, Henry said.
All machines will likely be up and running as soon as the vote centers open their doors on Election Day, he said.
Using the new machines shouldn’t be a challenge for voters, he said.
"It’s very intuitive. All of the checks and balances work the same," Henry said.
In addition to new machines, the county has secured new electronic pollbooks, which are what failed during the 2018 general election. Pollworkers use the tablets to check in voters, get them the correct ballot and verify that they haven’t already voted at another location. Now, they will simply scan a voter’s driver’s license to pull up their ballot, instead of having to type in everyone’s name, which lengthened the check-in process.
The new e-pollbooks are also faster, and Henry doesn’t expect any delays, he said. KNOWiNK, which is managed by MicroVote, uses Amazon web services instead of Microsoft, which is what ES and S blamed for its system failure on Election Day in November.
"There will be no interruption in its ability to process voters," Henry said. "Amazon has expertise in that area, which is what makes me confident it will stay connected."
Pollworkers will learn the new equipment in the coming weeks during two separate training sessions. MicroVote representatives will be on site to make sure that process runs smoothly, McLaughlin said.
Officials also tested absentee ballots during Tuesday’s test, manually reading several paper ballots through a machine and checking those votes against the system that tallies all votes. There were no problems with that, either.
As of Tuesday, the county had received 30 requests for paper ballots to be mailed, which will be entered manually after noon on Election Day.
Additional preparations are being made to ensure the problems that occurred during the last election don’t happen again, McLaughlin said. More vendor staff will be available this year if there are problems, she said. ES and S had one project manager on site in Johnson County. MicroVote will have four staffers in Johnson County on Election Day.
The goal of the public test is to make sure the machines work, catch any invalid entries and make sure the printouts match up perfectly with what was entered into each ballot on the machines. The test ballots will not be counted in the election.
MicroVote representatives cleared the system at the end of the public test on Tuesday.
The machines that were used during the test on Tuesday are disqualified from being used during this election. All equipment must be stored at the election warehouse located at the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, which is climate controlled and has security cameras. No voting machines used during early voting will be used on Election Day.
It took each tester less than three minutes to submit each ballot, which is about how long it should take a voter to vote once they reach the booth during early voting or on Election Day.
McLaughlin, Rapp and Barrow all signed off on the test during the meeting. The county’s certification will be sent to the Secretary of State’s Office for further certification.
Rapp was concerned about the amount of time it may take to manually enter absentee ballots. Otherwise, all three election board members were pleased with the new equipment.
"It’s pretty quick and easy to use," McLaughlin said.
"It was great," Barrow said.
The county has 255 voting machines to use during this year’s elections, McLaughlin said.
Because the county did not purchase any of the new election equipment being used this year, election officials will be tasked with selecting a vendor or vendors for future elections, a purchase that will likely top $1 million.
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Here is a look at the training schedule for pollworkers for this year’s primary municipal election:
6 p.m. April 2, at the White River Township Trustee’s Office, 2929 S. Morgantown Road, Greenwood
10 a.m. April 3, at the White River Township Trustee’s Office
10 a.m. April 10, at the Franklin Community Center, 396 Branigin Blvd., Franklin
6 p.m. April 11, at the Franklin Community Center
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Here is a look at upcoming Community Days where the public is welcome to attend and try out the new voting machines before they head to the polls:
10 a.m. to noon April 6, at Greenwood city hall, 300 S. Madison Avenue
5 to 7 p.m. April 16, at the John R. Drybread Community Center, 100 E. Main Cross Street, Edinburgh
5 to 7 p.m. April 25, at the Franklin Community Center, 396 Branigin Blvd., Franklin
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