By RICK NOLTE
Staff Writer
If you’re concerned with the accuracy of the equipment that will be used in the General Election on November 8, you’re welcome to watch testing next week by the Ware County Board of Elections and Registration.
Elections Supervisor Carlos Nelson cautions, however, to set aside days, not hours if you want to see the entire process.
“It’s not a one-hour thing,” Nelson said of the logic and accuracy (L&A) testing on the Dominion Voting Systems equipment. “It takes about three days.”
Nelson said he expects the data and items to conduct the evaluation of the touchscreens, scanners and tabulators to arrive at some point next week. The testing, which takes place before every election, will follow as time allows for board staff.
The process will be conducted at the board office, 408 Tebeau Street during business hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Representatives of any political party or members of the public are welcome to view the process.
“If someone wants to see L&A, they can call us let to us know and we’ll call them the day before we start,” Nelson said.
He said he anticipates receiving the computer discs to conduct the evaluation early next week. A time then will be set to begin the process, which Nelson said could be as soon as the end of the week or possibly the start of the next (September 12-16).
“It’s not a structured process,” he said. “We do it on our time as we have time.”
The supervisor said it takes about six hours to evaluate the readiness of each component of the equipment.
It begins with the actual voting machine where votes are recorded. They’re tested so it will access the proper ballot and allow votes to be input.
After those are OK’d, the scanners are tested to make sure they will scan and record the ballots from the touchscreen equipment. When the scanner is deemed efficient, the memory cards are pulled and placed in the tabulators.
Nelson said all of the ballots used in the process will have a few votes for every person in every race or each side of an issue. The result from the tabulation machine will then be compared to the printout of tally sheets.
He said the evaluation of the equipment takes about six hours with each piece if no issues arise.
Georgia has used this voting method since 2020. Nelson said there are no changes in any of the equipment since it was last used for the June runoffs following the General Primary in May.
