Oneida County Clerk Lon Colton has announced that a “Logic and Accuracy” test of the county’s ballots and equipment is scheduled for October 28 at 7:00 p.m. at the Event Center.  Colton expressed his hope that the test would be well-attended, and that voters would avail themselves of the opportunity to see firsthand how the process is conducted and ask any questions that they may have about the process or the equipment.

Required by law, each county must conduct a logic and accuracy test (L&A) to verify that ballot coding and tabulators are tracking/reporting accurate information. The test is open to the public and given the interest in ballot and voting security voiced throughout the year by members of the public, it is hoped that many will want to participate.  Again according to Clerk Colton, “it is an opportunity to share election information with the public and answer their questions. The process includes pre-marking a test deck of ballots in a uniform manner by assigning each candidate a vote based on the order they appear on the ballot. All candidates whose names appear in the first position in their contest will receive one vote, the second candidate receives two votes and so forth. This process goes through the fifth voter receiving five votes at which point we start back to one vote for the sixth candidate and repeat. We then cast the ballots and read the results to verify that they match how the ballot was marked.”

In addition to helping to provide confidence and transparency in the tabulation process, the event is also designed to address any questions participants from the public may have about any part of the process, and will therefore involve an informational/educational component.  “We will begin with a short discussion on the process and how the testing will be completed,” Colton explained.  “Teams will be assembled from those in attendance to help verify the test ballots and then process these ballots in the DS200 tabulators. Once all test ballots have been tabulated, we will compare the results with the actual ballots for accuracy.”

Rather than just observe from a distance, Colton is planning to give interested members of the public an up-close view of the process from start to finish. “I plan on allowing the public to inspect the test ballots and help feed them in the tabulators. I think that hands on will help them feel better and show that there is nothing being withheld from them,” he said.

While the test is required by law, it also potentially addresses some of the persistent misinformation about election security that generally increases as elections approach, especially those during a presidential election year.  “If I can answer questions and explain the process our office goes through to prepare for and conduct an election it may help relieve the concerns that ballots are tampered with or that persons can vote twice. I will be addressing mail ballot processes and hope to set voters at ease as they find how we verify signatures on all of the ballot requests and returned ballots that come in,” Colton said.

When it has been audited in the past by elections officials, the county has been affirmed to be following proper procedures with regard to process and protocol.  Instances of voter fraud are extremely low across the state, and do not have a significant history in the county.

“Oneida has a history of not getting too excited about voting for elections within our county other than county offices. We have a relatively small turnout for library, fire or school districts for the most part. We do a lot better in a presidential year and I anticipate or hope for a better than 80% turnout this November, however it will realistically be closer to 70% to 75%. Most of our elections other than presidential we will have a voter turnout of about 28%, plus or minus,” Colton said.

Voter turnout at even the 70% level is substantially higher than national levels, and speaks to the civic-minded nature of voters in the county.  The high proportion of seniors, veterans, and involved community members correlates with the demographic groups that typically vote at
high levels.

This year’s general election will take place on Tuesday November 5, and will not feature many county offices.  The race for Oneida County Sheriff will include the write-in candidacy of Dave Murphy, who qualified for write-in status against Doug Williams, who won the Republican primary earlier in the year.  Early voting is underway through Friday, November 1 at early
voting locations.