Brunswick Co. Board of Elections begins voting machine tests

BOLIVIA, N.C. (WECT) - The Brunswick County Board of Elections has begun testing voting machines in preparation for the municipal election.

The logic and accuracy (L&A) testing is intended to make sure ballots, scanners and other components are working correctly, per a county announcement.

“Before every election we test the voting equipment to ensure it is election-ready,” said Sara LaVere, director of the board of elections. “To promote transparency, the process of scanning ballots and sealing equipment is open to the public and will be live streamed.”

The testing includes using ballots of each style for a mock election, marking the ballots in a pre-determined pattern, and then running them through a tabulator. The results would then be compared to the expected result to make sure the tabulator is working accurately. The board says a bipartisan team conducts the tests and oversees the preperation of the machines and ballots.

“After testing, the bipartisan team and election staff will reset the equipment to ensure no L&A test information remains on the system heading into the elections. The equipment will be sealed by the bipartisan team with a security tag which is logged for chain of custody,” the announcement states.

The public can watch the testing in the office, though there’s limited space.

“The hope with opening this up is that anyone that has doubts or questions about what we do to make sure that the elections our accurate, they can come. They can watch us test these machines. They can see what happens,” LaVere said.

LaVere says they expect testing to take three days to complete, but they won’t fully be finished until they have tested everything.

You can also watch via a daily livestream during the testing at the following times:

• Monday, Oct. 9, 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Tuesday, Oct. 10, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Wednesday, Oct. 11, 9:30 a.m. 4 p.m.

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