County’s voting machines undergo rigorous prep prior to Election Day

Voting equipment is being prepped ahead of the upcoming 2025 city/school board elections. 

Voting systems are required to be used in Iowa for each election as specified in Iowa Code Chapter 52. There is an exception to this, as stated in Iowa Code Section 49.26, but this exception is rarely used as it violates the federal Help American Vote Act, which requires counties to provide the option of an electronic ballot marking device for disabled voters. 

All voting systems used in Iowa 

must be approved for use through the State Board of Examiners for Voting Systems. These examiners are appointed by the Secretary of State. The rules and testing standards for these voting systems must meet standards set forth by the Federal Election Commission.

     Currently in Iowa there are three vendors with voting systems that are approved for use in Iowa. The approved voting systems can be found on the Secretary of State website. The voting system used in Jones County is from Election Systems and Software, which is a company based in Nebraska. 

     Voting systems consist of optical scan 

tabulators and ballot-marking devices. When voting at a polling location, the optical scan tabulator is the machine that voters insert their voted ballot into. This machine tabulates the votes from each ballot inserted and then stores the voted ballots in a locked compartment until the polls close. The voting results from that machine are not accessible by anyone until after the polls close. 

     To get the results from the tabulator, poll workers must go through the closing process on the machine which prints the results on a receipt tape. The machine also exports the results to a USB stick. The USB stick and the printed receipt tape get brought to the Jones County Auditor’s Office right away so that unofficial results can be released to the public in a timely manner. 

     The other implement at the polls is the ballot-marking device, which helps disabled voters mark their ballot. However, anyone can use it. The device is very helpful for voters who might have a broken arm, are blind or have other visual impairments. There are various large print, contrast, and audio settings that make this device very user friendly.  The device is located inside a special voting booth at the polling location that meets ADA height requirements. This device can be thought of as a very large pencil. There is no tabulation of votes stored on this device; it simply marks a paper ballot based on the user’s selections. After all selections are made, it prints a paper ballot for the voter to insert into the optical scan tabulator just like other voters who are using a pen to mark a paper ballot. 

Jones County recently purchased a 

high-throughput optical scanner and tabulator. Like the optical scan tabulators at the polling place, this machine scans ballots and tabulates votes. The difference between this machine and the ones found at the polling places is speed. At the polling place, the optical scan tabulator can read one ballot every nine seconds. In prior years, this same type of tabulator was used for absentee ballot counting. Last November, it took a total of sixteen hours (eight hours on two machines) to count all the absentee ballots. This new high-throughput optical scanner and tabulator can operate at a speed up to 70 ballots per minute. This machine will aid in the efficiency of counting absentee ballots without sacrificing the accuracy of the vote counts.  

For each election, there is a unique 

programming file created based on the precincts, polling locations and races on the ballot. This programming file is used to program the tabulator and ballot marking device for the specific election. To verify that the programming file is working correctly, all the optical scan tabulators must go through a public test. This is required for every election per Iowa Code Section 52.35. The Iowa Administrative Code 721-22.41-22.43 goes into further detail on how to perform the public test. 

     In short, every piece of optical scan equipment that is to be used on election day must go through a series of tests at least twelve hours before the polls open on election day. As Commissioner of Elections, I am required by law to publish the public testing notice in the newspaper inviting the public to observe. The timing of our testing is usually dictated by when we receive our printed ballots and the programming file from our election vendor. During testing, the same ballots that are used for absentee and election day voting must be used for testing. The only difference is that the ballots used for testing must be marked with the word “test ballot”.

    The tests performed during the public 

test are the systematic test, overvote test, blank ballot test and orientation test. Each test has certain criteria on how those test ballots should be marked. My office marks all the test ballots by hand using the same type of black pen that is offered at the polls on election day. A test key is created that will show which candidates to “vote” for on each test ballot. That key is also used to verify the accuracy of the results printed from the machine. The total number of votes for a specific candidate on the answer key must match the results tape from the optical scan machine. If there are any discrepancies between the key and the results tape, the error must be found, corrected and a perfect test run before the machine is certified for use in the election. 

After the election is over, a public post-election audit will be called by the State Commissioner of Elections per Iowa Code Section 50.51. The day after election day the State Commissioner holds a random drawing and selects one precinct from every county to be audited. The local audit board consists of a bi-partisan team of precinct election officials. Their duty is to hand count one race on each ballot cast in the selected precinct and then verify that the total votes cast for that race equals the results tape that was printed on election day from the optical scan equipment. In Jones County, this audit is on Monday following the election. The notice of the post-election audit is posted in the courthouse at least 24 hours prior to the start of the audit. Anyone from the public is allowed to come and observe this process. 

Personally, this is one of my favorite processes during the election. It proves that optical scan machines are very accurate. In my tenure as Auditor, the results from the optical scan tabulator on election day have always equaled the same number of votes hand counted during the audit process.  

Please reach out to the Auditor’s office if you have any questions on elections, equipment, or the procedures of elections. Months of planning go into each county wide election, and I am happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Hein can be reached at whitney.hein@jonescountyiowa.gov or by calling (319) 462-2282.