How local officials are testing voting machines to ensure election integrity

With midterm voting already underway in many states, local election officials say careful testing and physical safeguards deserve voter confidence, PBS NewsHour reports. Their larger worry is doubt, whether produced by sudden rule changes, thinner federal support, or past efforts to undermine faith in results.

In Davis County, Utah, clerk Brian McKenzie's staff feed deliberately flawed practice ballots through machines before any real ones are counted, checking that errors such as choosing too many candidates get flagged. Mail ballots carry individual bar codes, are retrieved by at least two workers, and are scanned and photographed. Signatures are checked against up to five on file. Ballots move in batches of 200, and totals travel on encrypted memory sticks with no wireless or web connection. McKenzie says short-notice changes cause disruption, and his team drafted contingency plans after the Postal Service, at President Donald Trump's direction, announced mail-ballot rules that the Supreme Court blocked last month.

Joseph Kirk, election supervisor in Bartow County, Georgia, says he fears efforts to discourage participation more than vote hacking, and says federal security help has dwindled. In Mesa County, Colorado, clerk Bobbie Gross offers public tours to rebuild trust after former clerk Tina Peters's conviction.

Summarized by PolitiKool from PBS NewsHour’s reporting. Read the full story at PBS NewsHour →