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On Tuesday, the Pike County Probate Court held a public test of the election ballot counters for the upcoming 2024 elections.

The entire process of counting ballots was demonstrated at the public test. Poll workers and inspectors will arrive on the morning of the election to ballot counting machines that have a seal on them. If a seal is broken – or damaged – it will be reported to Probate Judge Michael Bunn or a ballot inspector.

Poll workers break the seal and open the machines up, which automatically come on and print out information that will need to show all zeros, meaning no ballots have been counted. The machines are practically just scanners and the only firmware involved is on a thumb drive, which is locked. None of the machines have a modem and none are connected to a network in any way.

Once everything is verified, the voting can start. Only in-person ballots can be accepted in in-person ballot machines and only absentee ballots can be accepted by absentee ballot machines. The machines will reject any attempt to scan a ballot that doesn’t go with its machine.

Ballot counters will also notify poll workers if a blank ballot is submitted. The ballot can either be counted – with no votes being cast – or it can be returned and a voter can choose to fill it out.

If a voter accidentally makes two selections in the same race, the machine will notify poll workers. The ballot can be accepted – but the race where two people were selected will have no vote counted – or it can be returned. If it is returned, poll inspectors will tear the ballot and issue a new one. Torn ballots will be rejected by the machine if one is attempted to be scanned.

In fact, the ballot counters will reject a ballot if it isn’t the correct size for the machine or if the edges are bent.

If a voter decides to vote straight ticket for one party but decides to still make an individual selection for a candidate in another party in one – or more – races the machine reads that and will count the individual vote and register the straight tickets votes for the remaining races.

At the end of the night, poll workers and inspectors print out multiple copies that show the ballots counted and a print out and the thumb drive from the machine is given to the probate court.