Teton County Democratic Party Chair Maggie Hunt feeds sample ballots into a voting machine during a recent test of the machines observed by both Democrats and Republicans.
Teton County has a dozen ballot-counting machines that will be commissioned on Tuesday for Election Day, each of which has been tested by county clerks in the past few weeks to ensure accurate operation and results.
Teton County Republican and Democratic party chairpersons, alongside Jackson Hole Daily staff, observed a voting machine test conducted July 26 by Teton County clerks.
Voting machines are present on site on election day and enable voters to directly submit their ballot for automatic counting, a system commonly used at polling sites across the United States.
Teton County voting machines were purchased 10 years ago from Election Systems and Software, a main distributor of election system equipment. The secretary of state’s office has recently contracted with the election system distributor so all counties in Wyoming now use the same machines.
On the morning of election day, Teton County clerks and staff from the facilities and IT departments load moving trucks with the voting machines to deliver them to voting centers.
The machines arrive secured with multiple seals — six on the outside, three on the inside — each with a corresponding serial number for careful tracking. Election judges, who are mostly Teton County deputy clerks and represent all political party affiliations, first write the serial numbers of each seal into a log book, which is kept with that machine to monitor its “chain of custody.”
Some seals are locks, some are like zip ties, but even the zip tie-like seals are stored after use. Voting machines are under lock and key until clerks unlock them, which then reveals a screen. Election judges then print a configuration report, which details the device’s serial number and other properties, as well as whether it is plugged into power. The machines will be charging overnight before election day, then plugged into power at voting sites, just in case.
Election results from each machine are stored on media sticks, which look like thumb-size flash drives. Each voting machine has its respective media stick, which is plugged in to erase any data that could be left on the machine and to redownload the new election information.
The judges then enter the election code into the machines, which prompts the printing of a “ballot status accounting report.” The report should show zeros beside each vote tally.
Once voters feed their marked ballots into the machine, they fall into a blue box in the stomach of the machine, which enables the papers to fall flat and remain organized.
The judges then document in the Seal Log Book when and why the seals on the voting machine were broken. The seal numbers are transferred to an election day manual, so election judges know the details of the machines on hand.
After 7 p.m. on election night, judges immediately bring each media stick back to the county office, as well as completed ballots. The media sticks are plugged into a hardened computer, which is a computer that does not have internet access. The results are then summarized and sorted by polling place and precincts.
Once the data is collected, election judges will select a button on the screens of voting machines that says, “You have successfully cleared the vote total.” The machine is then shut down, secured with new seals and brought back to the county office the day after Election Day.
Teton County Republican Party Chair Mary Martin observed the voting machine test at the county office a little over two weeks ago. This is her first election as Republican Party chair, but she has experience with working as an election judge in the past.
“I can’t speak to other counties or people who work elections,” said Martin during the voting machine test. “But I have confidence that Teton County polling is fairly done.”
She is proud of the fact that clerks and election judges of both parties work together and use a number of verification methods to make sure the election is sound. One verification method she felt was worth mentioning was that people handing out ballots at the polling stations also keep track of how many ballots they give out and which ones get spoiled.
“When I ran for county commissioner, it didn’t even dawn on me that elections could be unfairly run,” Martin said. “I would say more than most Republicans are confident in Teton County’s ballot counting system.”
Maggie Hunt, chair of the Teton County Democratic Party, also observed the county’s voting machine testing. She expressed her confidence in Wyoming’s election system as a former election judge.
“I know that the secretary of state has 23 outstanding clerks,” Hunt said. “I’m confident Wyoming has the absolute highest of election integrity.”
Contact Miranda de Moraes at 732-7063 or mdm@jhnewsandguide.com.
Raised in a Brazilian-American household in Southern California, Miranda is fascinated by the intersection of culture and ecology. She holds a master’s in journalism from Columbia and is searching for jackalopes in her free time.
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