By Sherri Blevins
The November 8 general election is only a couple of weeks away. Voters in DeKalb County can rest easy that the vote they cast will be the vote recorded, according to DeKalb County Maintenance Supervisor Craig Shelton. Shelton is in charge of certifying the voting machines for each election.
Shelton indicated that even though other states have experienced problems with voters questioning the validity of their state’s election results, DeKalb County voting machines have passed the accuracy test without a flaw.
On Thursday, October 20, Shelton and other officials certified the forty-nine voting machines used in forty-two different precincts. Shelton stated, “None of the machines have failed to catch a test. Whatever we put into it, we get perfect results. I have never seen any of the ones that didn’t.” Shelton praised the speed of the Model DS200 machines, which have provided faster scanning and reduced wait time for voters.
MVN asked Shelton to explain what happens to the votes once they are cast. Shelton said, “We put out forty-nine machines. Some precincts, like the coliseum, the VFW, and Wills Valley, have two machines to handle the volume of voters. There are three precincts with split boxes, two different sets of poll workers, and two machines inside one building. At 7:00 pm on election day, we go through the process of closing the polls. Anyone that is in line before 7:00 is allowed to vote. The door is locked behind them to stop the line. The poll workers then take a key, open the machine’s door, push a button, and close the polls. The workers collect eight printouts from the machine that does the tallying. They have other steps they have to do. Each precinct must seal all the necessary documents, prepare the collection boxes, and package the ballots, provisional boxes, machine printouts, and the memory stick inside the machine before returning it all to the courthouse. Once the voting materials are returned, officials at the courthouse read the memory sticks and get the totals. The time frame for determining the results depends on how far the people from each precinct have to travel to return the materials and if they had any delays or problems with closing the polls. Officials compare the voting tally printout with the information on the memory stick to verify the results.”
Shelton said he had never had an incident where the printout and the memory stick didn’t match, so he has 100% confidence in the machines. He concluded, “With all this talk about voter fraud in other states, we need confidence in our election process.”
The machines are ready for voting, are you?