Days of testing and preparation are required to get the election machines ready for Election Day.
Pearl River County Election Commissioner Reggie Hanberry, along with other election commissioners, were working diligently to test all 151 voting machines in the county. Of that total about 140 will actually be used, with the rest serving as backups in case another fails or breaks.
To conduct those tests, the memory card of each machine is installed containing the ballots for each party. Then, the testers will load an encoder with the proper ballot key and test each ballot on all of the machines.
Election Commissioner Tommy Breland said the testing procedure also makes sure that all encoders and the touch screen on each voting machine works properly.
Hanberry said it takes about two days to properly test all of them.
Once all of the machines have been properly tested, the memory cards are brought to the county courthouse where their results are uploaded to the state’s Global Election Management System.
“That way if someone wants to follow the trail, it goes all through the system,” Hanberry said.
On Election Day, a printer gives a zero report at the beginning of the day to show that no votes were logged before an actual voter arrives at a polling place to cast their vote.
In preparation for Tuesday, election commissioners will begin packing supplies into county vehicles so the poll workers will have the proper supplies on hand.
Hanberry said county trusties help distribute the machines on Election Day morning.
Most problems seem to arise at the start of the day, Hanberry said. So if there is an issue, the election commissioners will be out solving it.
Tuesday, there are going to be names on the ballot for candidates no longer running. Hanberry said any votes cast for those candidates will basically be dead votes. Pearl River County Circuit Clerk Nance Stokes said sample ballots will be on display at each polling place, but they will not be marked to identify which candidates are no longer running. Stokes said it is against the law for poll workers to alter the ballot, or tell voters a candidate is no longer running.
A similar situation occurred about three years ago during an election when the candidate passed away prior to Election Day, leaving voters to write in another candidate’s name. Hanberry said they received 554 different names during that election.
Stokes said the governor eventually appointed a person to that position.