Chat about the new voting machines and other electoral issues

Election season is winding up. Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew chats about the county’s new voting machines and other vote-counting issues.

ksknowall

Will there be Verified Voter Paper (VVPB) Ballots available with this system?

Moderator

Good afternoon. Welcome to our online chat. Joining us today is Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew. I’m Managing Editor Dennis Anderson, I’ll be moderating today’s chat. We have some questions submitted earlier from our readers. So let’s get started.

Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew

Hello and thanks for having me here. I hope that everyone is staying cool today. I look forward to your questions.

agardner

I see that 180 county voters have cast ballots in the first week of advanced voting for the Aug. 1 primary. How does that compare with other elections?

Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew

I do not have the exact answer, but it is about average for a gubanatorial primary year. Interest in this election seems to just be getting started and I anticipate the advance vote to increase. I always hope for a great turnout in every election.

ksknowall

What background checks are run on the programers of the new voting machines? What background checks are run on any election official/worker/poll worker?

Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew

That is a good question, thank you. The programming and preperation of the elections is accomplished through our office with some support from a Kansas company. Their employees go through normal hiring procedures as do all of our employees. We do not run background checks on poll workers or employees in our office. Each person that handles elections materials is required to sign an oath and they are informed that tampering with an election is a felony offense. It is important that we maintain a chain of custody where only those who are authorized have access to the elections materials. We have been adding these procedures in the past year, including restricting access to our office.

OnShakedown

Can you explain 1. who the manufacturer is for the machines we’ll be using and 2. if their software produces a paper-trail to confirm that the electronic read-out is accurate.

As a follow-up, if like many of the top manufacturers (diebold, es & s, and sequoia) the machine produces a paper-trail based on the electronic count, how can you be sure that the electronic count is not inaccurate, therefore making the paper-count also inaccurate?

Thanks,
Chris
lawrence

Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew

Chris, thank you for your question. Securing the vote is one of my most important responsibilities. Because of this, I did extensive research prior to choosing our system. The foundation of our system is still the paperballot. We did not implement a DRE system in Douglas County. Therefore, the foundation is still the paper cast ballot. We will have precinct scanners in the polling place and an accessible marking device that does nothing other than help a voter mark their ballot without the need for assistance. Because we are still a paper based system, we are able to perform audits and checks that ensure that the tabulations are correct. We also have the cast paper ballots which allows for a recount using the actual documents produced in the election.

Our manufacturer is Election Systems & Software. The paper trail is actually the ballots that are produced by the voter. It is important for me to reiterate that we did not implement a touchscreen, electronic voting system in Douglas County.

Moderator

A handful of readers have asked whether you can expect to get election night results any sooner because of the new electronic voting machines.

Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew

We anticipate getting results much sooner than in the past because we will not be tabulating the ballots at the courthouse. Douglas County has 75,000 voters and tabulating the ballots at the courthouse had become too cumbersome. We will review the results for each precinct when they come back to the courthouse, look for any problems and issue the results at that time. It is always important to remember that the results on election night are always unofficial until the final canvas on Friday, this allows for processing the provisional ballots and auditing the results for any anomolies.

smokey_813

During my career as an engineer, I have seen several examples of poorly designed hardware and software that are released and sold to the public. What assurances (if any) will the county provide to voters to reassure them their ballot has been recorded accurately by these new machines? Is the hardware/software “open source” or otherwise reviewable by the skeptical voter?

Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew

Smokey_183 that is an excellent question. The equipment goes through certification both on the federal and state levels. Only hardware and software that is certified is allowed for use in the elections. Part of the certification process included the source code being kept by a third part that is neither the state or the vendor. Information regarding the source code can be acquired through the Secretary of State.

On our end, we have implemented a lot of security procedures that secure the access points to the equipment, including the use of security seals, chain of custody reports, and limited accessibility to systems. As I mentioned I do a lot of research and take recommendations from reports like the recent Brennan Report and see how they can be implemented in our county. Because we have a paper based system we can do numerous tests and audits that ensure that the machines are correctly tabulating the ballots. If at any point we are not confident in the results we can always use the cast ballots for a recount or further audit. I would like to see the state of Kansas consider some of the audit proposals discussed in the Brennan report statewide.

We will also be conducting a public test of all of the machines on Thursday, July 27th. Each machine will be tested by teams of citizens with test ballots. This test will take place at the Professional Moving and Storage Warehouse on Franklin Road and start at 8:00 a.m. and go through most of the day.

Moderator

Here’s a couple softball questions for you. Is it too late to register to vote in the Aug. 1 primary? And what is the deadline to register to vote in the November general election?

Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew

The deadline to register for the August 1 primary has passed. Registration for the November 7 election closes 14 days prior to the election which will be October 23rd. Our office will stay open late on that day for late registrations. Registration forms can be downloaded from our website at www.douglascountyelections.com and sent to our office.

Moderator

That’s all the questions we have today. I want to thank Mr. Shew for his time.

Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew

Thank you very much for this opportunity. If anyone has further questions please feel free to contact me at 832-5182 or jshew@douglas-county.com. Information regarding Douglas County elections can be found at www.douglascountyelections.com. We are still recruiting election day workers, including the unsung heroes and heroines of elections the poll worker. Please contact our office if you are interested in helping. Thank you and remember to vote on August 1. Advance voting has already started in our office during regular business hours and we will be open on Saturday, July 29th from 9 a.m.-12:00 p.m. for advance voting.