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Auditor’s Office tests voting machines
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
MARENGO — Before any ballot in Iowa County is put into a voting machine for counting, the machines are publicly tested for accuracy by the auditor’s office.
Sara Fricke, Iowa County elections deputy, led her staff Wednesday in testing 12 machines that will count votes for Iowa County’s 11 precincts and absentee ballots Nov. 5.
The machines were purchased in 2023 and will be used for five or six years, said Fricke.
The State allows counties to choose from several brands. Iowa County uses Unisyn. “We have the most popular one,” said Fricke.
“None of our county machines are hooked up to the internet,” said Fricke. Information is collected inside the machines and turned in to the auditor’s office after polls close.
On Wednesday morning, Fricke, Kristen Miller, Laurie O’Donnell and Samantha Sherman put sample ballots through each of the county’s machines.
The first ballot was inserted four times — once in each direction on each side — to prove that the machines will count the ballots regardless of which way voters insert it.
In addition to testing printed ballots that most voters fill out, clerks tested ballots produced by accessible voting machines used by people with vision impairment.
Those machines produce a printout of the voter’s choices. The voter feeds the printout into the Unisyn machine.
A couple of ballots tested were marked incorrectly to make sure the machines will not accept them.
If someone marks a ballot incorrectly — voting for too many candidates in one category, for example — the machines will reject the ballot and print out an error message.
The voter gives the error message to a poll worker who explains the voter’s options. The voter can ask that the ballot be spoiled and vote on a new one, or the voter can ask that the poll worker override the computer and scan the ballot.
In the latter case, only the sections voted correctly will be counted.
Each type of ballot that will be used in the Nov. 5 election was tested. Some precincts will have one ballot. Some precincts have ballots for residents in the Williamsburg Community School District, which has a bond issue on the ballot, and other ballots for precinct voters who are not.
One precinct has three ballots: one for Dayton Township residents, one for English I precinct not the Williamsburg school district and one for English I precinct voters who are not in that school district.
Each machine is dedicated to a specific precinct and is tested for all of the ballot types in the precinct.
The machine that counts absentee ballots has to be tested for every ballot in the county.
The auditor’s office tested 42 ballots of each type that will be used in Iowa County.
After the ballots were put through the counting machines, the tallies were checked by the clerks for mistakes.
Then the machines, which are always locked, were sealed until Election Day.
On Nov. 5, Fricke, Iowa County Auditor Brandy Enochson and a couple of helpers will load up the machines and deliver them to their appointed precincts, said Fricke.
The seals will be checked. Election officials at each precinct will unlock the machines.
After marking their ballots, voters insert the ballots into the machines themselves. Even if they ask for help, poll workers will only explain how to put the ballots into the machine, said Fricke. Voters still insert the ballots in the machines.
As ballots are scanned through the machines, they drop into a space behind the machines. When polls close, those ballots are collected and sealed.
Election officials sign the seals and the ballots are returned to the auditor’s office.
Results from the machines are uploaded to thumb drives, said Fricke. Representatives from both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party remove the drives from the machines, seal them in envelopes and sign the envelopes.
Runners deliver the thumb drives to the auditor’s office election night where clerks check the seals, retrieve the drives and read the information on them.
Votes are audited in random precincts selected by the Secretary of State, said Fricke. The paper ballots are compared to the machine tallies in those precincts.
Paper ballots also will be hand-counted and compared to machine tallies if a recount is requested in a precinct.
Paper ballots from federal elections are kept for 22 months, said Fricke. Ballots from other elections are kept for six months.
Residents may watch the testing of the machines. On Wednesday, the test was observed by Kathy Focht, chairwoman of the Iowa County Democratic Party, and by the managing editor of the Hometown Current.
Absentee voting begins in Iowa Wednesday, Oct. 16. Residents may vote at their county auditors’ offices during regular hours. Check with the county auditor’s office for dates for Saturday voting and for satellite.
County auditors will begin sending out requested absentee ballots Oct. 16.
Voters must submit absentee ballot request to their county auditor’s office to receive a ballot by mail. Request forms can be downloaded from the Iowa Secretary of State’s website.
The forms must be completed and returned in person or by mail to the county auditor.
The deadline for requesting absentee ballots and for pre-registering to vote in the Nov. 5 election is Monday, Oct. 21.
In-person absentee voting ends Monday, Nov. 4.
Polls open across Iowa at 7 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 5 and close at 8 p.m. that day. Absentee ballots must be received in auditors’ offices by 8 p.m. Nov. 5.
