Can voters be assured that new electronic voting machines approved by the county Wednesday won’t lead to fraud?

That was the theme of several questions posed to Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew Thursday afternoon during an online chat on ljworld.com about the county’s move into electronic voting.

“That is one of the biggest concerns regarding the introduction of technology into these processes,” Shew wrote during the chat. “… the most important safeguards are having a firm security and testing plan in place.”

Shew wrote that prior to the election the ballots will be created and put through the new machines to make sure they get the same results as a hand count.

“This test is open to the public and is always published in the newspaper, so anyone can come watch the test,” he wrote. “After the election we do the same process to look for anything that is out of whack.”

He said the test would be able to detect if anyone had tampered with a computer chip.

He also said that the chips and the election machines would be kept secure at all times and access to them would be limited up to and including on Election Day.

• Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew chats about new election equipment, procedures

“Plus, by having a paper-based system we can always double-check and audit the results,” he wrote.

You can read the entire chat transcript at www2.lj-world.com/news/chats.