This is an installment in the League of Women Voters of Georgia’s “How Georgia Votes” series. To read previous installments in the “How Georgia Votes” series, follow this link.
By Jackie Killings, President, League of Women Voters of Georgia
In the weeks before early voting opens, something happens in all 159 of Georgia’s county election offices that most voters never see: every piece of voting equipment headed for a polling place is tested to prove it records votes accurately. This week in “How Georgia Votes,” our series on how Georgia elections work, I want to explain logic and accuracy testing, and why I consider it one of the strongest guarantees in the process.
The idea is simple. Before any election, county election staff run test ballots with known results through the same touchscreens and scanners voters will use. If the machine reports exactly what was put in, it passes. If it doesn’t, it is pulled and fixed or replaced. This testing is required by Georgia law before every election, it is announced in advance, and it is open to the public. Any Georgian who wants to watch their county test its equipment this month can contact their county election office and ask when.
The testing is only half the story. The other half is the chain of custody, the paperwork that follows every machine and every ballot container from the moment it is sealed. Once a machine passes testing, it is locked with numbered seals and logged. Those seals are checked when equipment arrives at the polling place, and the logs travel with it. If a seal number doesn’t match the log, officials know, and they investigate before the equipment is used.
I think most Georgians would be surprised, in the best way, by how much checking happens before the first voter walks in. In Rome, in Columbus, in Brunswick, election staff are running test ballots through machines and logging seal numbers weeks before Election Day. They do it in public because the process was built to be watched. If you are curious, I encourage you to go and watch it.
Next in our “How Georgia Votes” series: the three ways to vote in Georgia this fall, the dates and deadlines for each, and how each one is secured.
Jackie Killings is president of the League of Women Voters of Georgia, a nonpartisan organization that encourages informed and active participation in government and never supports or opposes any candidate or political party. Learn more at lwvga.org and Vote411.org.
Monica Granderson is the President of the League of Women Voters of Marietta-Cobb County. To see information about activities of the local league, along with Cobb-specific voting and elections information, visit lwvmariettacobbga.com.