County Tests Voting Machines for Last Primary Before New Machines Selected
Erie County is preparing for primary election on May 21 by testing the vote tabulation software for its 600 plus electronic voting machines.
The pre-election testing underway is all about ensuring the system's logic and accuracy.
Using an algorithm, they test the software with a program that knows how many votes it should have, and then compares the results to the actual tabulation process back at the Erie County Courthouse.
This is the last primary election where Erie County voters will use these digital voting machines.
By the 2020 primary, all Pennsylvania counties are required to have new voting systems that provide a paper trail back up to how votes were cast.
The change is coming after warnings that Pennsylvania was one 20 states targeted by Russian hackers in the 2016 presidential election. Although no votes were tampered with, there was evidence that hackers infiltrated the systems and "looked around."
Clerk of Elections Doug Smith gave us an update on the process of choosing new machines in Erie County. A County Council subcommittee, involving elections and IT officials will make a recommendation. "We’ve looked at four systems so far twice and the plan is for us to present a sort of pros and cons report to the whole of council by June and for them to make a decision hopefully by August," Smith said.