PONTIAC, Mich. (WXYZ) — With elections less than two weeks away, local counties and municipalities are making sure everything is ready for the big day. Thursday, Oakland County conducted a public test of its voting equipment. Scott Jackson and others showed up to watch and ask questions.
“My wife and I both signed up to be election inspectors and none of us really understood the mechanics of it so we figured this was a good way to answer a bunch of questions before our training,” Jackson explained
He said he wanted to be an inspector because of concerns from the 2020 election.
Lisa Brown is the Oakland County Clerk and Registrar of deeds. She explained she wanted to make sure people, like Jackson, know l the process is as secure and transparent as possible.
“You can see like down here, we’ve got not just a lock but it has a number on it,” said Brown, showing a lock on one of the computers at the election center. "So that number is recorded and that’s something that’s checked. We have tamper-evident seals.”
The actual counting of ballots has to be on Election Day. Brown said there’s no such thing as good enough.
“That’s why we test this. We want to make sure that it is reading correctly. 100%. Anything less than 100% is unacceptable,” said Brown.
She explained they run the machines through an array of tests to ensure accuracy come voting day.
“From over-voted to stray marks, a blank ballot. All these different scenarios to make sure it’s being read correctly and then tabulated correctly,” Brown said.
She admits, there is some extra pressure this election.
“Some aspects have been as if we’re under a microscope. But that’s OK. People have the right to know how our elections run as long as they are willing to listen and learn how and what happens in our elections process,” said Brown
Anthony Forlini is the Macomb County Clerk.
“We’ve done an audit of our server here a year ago, and we found that our server has always been secured. We installed better protocols since then and so we have all the confidence in the world,” said Forlini.
He said security has gotten better.
“I can tell you that we’re not going to be modem-ing the results like we have in the past. That’s because the state no longer allows modem-ing with new software upgrades,” said Forlini.
He said people should expect results to take a little longer.
“I believe that we will have just a very good, secure election that the public can trust,” he said.
