SIOUX FALLS, SD (KELO) — Workers with the Minnehaha County auditor’s office put their tabulating machines to the test Thursday to help ensure an accurate count on election night.
Hundreds of practice ballots ran through the machines in a final dress rehearsal ahead of Tuesday.
The testing starts with the push of a button.
“We select the precinct in the machine,” Minnehaha County Auditor Leah Anderson said.
Then the test ballots are placed on the tray.
“It doesn’t matter what direction they’re in, or if they’re upside down or right side up. We hit start and it’s going to do its thing,” Anderson said.
Volunteers filled out the test ballots. Some of them purposely left more marks on the ballot than allowed. Other ballots were left blank. The machines were able to red-flag each.
“And it shows me over-votes and blanks,” Anderson said.
This is a chance for the staff to reacquaint themselves with the vote-counting process.
“It’s been going really good. Been doing a lot of testing and I think everything’s on-track,” Deputy Auditor Anna Schreurs said.
But only three staffers were able to take part in testing the county’s four tabulators.
“Because we’re busy with absentee voting. We’re getting a lot of phone calls downstairs and we have our regular work to do, too, that doesn’t stop during an election,” Anderson said.
A maintenance worker came in on Tuesday to service all the tabulating machines to prevent any paper jams.
“They clean the rollers, they got all the dust cleared out of the nooks and crannies because the dust can affect the ballot,” Anderson said.
The staff keeps plenty of cans of compressed air nearby to blow out the machines roughly every one-thousand ballots, to lessen the risk of paper jams. All the practice and precautions have the staff optimistic about a smooth vote count on election night.
“I feel pretty confident that we’re going to be ready, we’ll see,” Schreurs said.
Thursday’s test was open to the public to see the process for themselves. However, no one showed up to watch, one hour into the testing.
