The Summit County clerk’s office hosted a public demonstration of the vote-counting process Tuesday.
All 50 states conduct public logic and accuracy tests before elections to make sure the process will proceed efficiently and securely.
And it's a process that involves as much, if not more, human labor than machine labor.
The first thing the clerk's office does after receiving ballots from polling stations is certify voters’ signatures. At nearly every step of the process, the person processing a ballot initials and dates it.
Then they transfer the ballots to a windowless room deep in the office to be counted and stored.
Two people with authorized key cards have to unlock the door to the ballot room simultaneously in order to enter. After that, every step of the process is done in pairs and under constant surveillance.
Ballots go into the counting machine, 25 at a time, which filters out the ones it needs a human to verify. After ballots are counted, they go to the other side of the room and are stored.
Neither the voting machine nor the desktop that processes and prints election results are connected to Wi-Fi.
All the votes are stored and transferred between the machines using American-made and specially encrypted thumb drives designed only to work with the voting machine and the desktop.
The desktop shows images of the ballot, details how it was counted and allows the clerks to manually adjust a ballot that was misread. The computer records and timestamps any changes, and those changes must be approved by both vote counters.
At night, the flash drives are locked in a drawer in the ballot room, which is then double locked again.
There’s a backup counting machine the clerks store offsite in the case of a mishap or emergency.
This year’s election, which is for nonpartisan municipal positions, is Nov. 21. But Sept. 5, there’s a primary for three races with eight candidates each.
Summit County will have primaries for Park City Council, Coalville City Council and the South Summit Fire District. Three city council seats are open in Park City and Coalville, and two South Summit fire commission seats are open.
People can vote for as many candidates as there are open seats. Summit County Clerk Furse said some people like to strategize and vote for fewer.
“There's different views on that, but from our perspective, we're agnostic,” she said. “Vote the way you want to vote. If you want to hand in a blank ballot, we will put it through the machine.”
If voters don’t vote for as many candidates as they could have, their votes are still valid. But voting for too many will get all the votes thrown out.
In-person voting machines don’t let people overvote, so that’s only a risk with mail-in ballots.
Votes in the Park City Council race for Betsy Wallace, who withdrew her candidacy last week.
At last week’s county council meeting, Furse said the law doesn’t allow her office to remove Wallace’s name from Park City ballots because ballots had already been mailed to overseas voters.
“We are working on putting an insert into the Park City ballots that will say that she has withdrawn,” Furse said.
In the meantime, the last day to register online to vote for the primary election is Aug. 25. Voters can also register to vote on the same day as the election at polling locations.
Mail-in ballots for the primary must be postmarked on or before Sept. 5 to count.
To register to vote or check that you’re registered, visit vote.utah.gov/.
