‘Behind the curtain’
Berks officials allowed public to watch election equipment testing for first time
ELECTION 2024
A small crowd gathered around R.F. Shoup as he worked.
The president of Elections USA, the company Berks County contracts with to test its elections equipment to ensure they are running properly before they are put into service, was meticulous. He made sure the ballot was correctly uploaded into the electronic voting machine, he made selections to verify the machine was properly accepting votes and confirmed that the paper ballot it produced matched his picks.
Through each step, he explained Monday, March 25, to the three people gathered to observe the testing what he was doing and why he was doing it.
It was all part of an important step in preparing for the April 23 primary election.
Election workers this week conducted logic and accuracy testing to ensure the machines voters will use on election day are ready to go. That arduous process began Monday at the Berks County South Campus in Mohnton and concluded Wednesday afternoon.
“We are testing every part of the voting process that will happen on election day,” Shoup told the small group before starting his demonstration. “Our job is to find any mistakes and correct them immediately so that they are ready for the election.”
On Monday, for the first time, members of the public were allowed to come watch the testing.
Opening the process
The state election code only requires counties to allow representatives of political parties and county organizations that investigate election fraud to observe testing. And Berks officials opened up the process to the media as well in 2022.
But this year, a revised directive from the Pennsylvania Department of State has opened the process even further. It says the process should be open to the general public.
So, the county elections board voted to expand the opportunity to observe the testing of the nearly 800 voting machines that will be used in the primary election, as well as ballot scanners and electronic poll books from each of the 202 Berks precincts.
Elections Director Anne Nor
ton said she believes allowing public observation of the testing will increase the transparency of the process.
“I think it’s important for the public to see what we do and understand all the checks and balances that we have in place,” she said. “This is a positive step toward restoring integrity in our voting system.”
Lenny Krug, an observer representing the Berks County Republican Committee, said Monday that he was excited to learn about the process.
“I find this all very fascinating and I want to know more about the technology behind how our voting system works,” the Hamburg resident said before Shoup’s demonstration.
And afterward, Krug said he thought the demonstration was very informative.
“It makes me feel more confident in what’s going on,” he said. “It’s kind of like in the ‘Wizard of Oz’ — the curtain has been pulled away so to speak. I got to see who was behind the curtain and what it is that they do.”
Bill Litvin, a board member of the League of Women Voters of Berks County, said he was grateful for the opportunity to see the process and believes it will enhance confidence in the election process.
“While I already believe that our system is secure, allowing the public to see this will only increase confidence for others who may have questions,” the Exeter Township resident said.
Jill Greene, voting and elections manager for Common Cause Pennsylvania, said she was pleased with the demonstration and thankful that the county made people available to answer any questions that she had about the process.
“I appreciate the transparency,” the Wyomissing resident said. “I think they did a really good job explaining how the machines work and how they test them before an election.”
The machines
The county rolled out the voting machines for the 2019 general election that allowed people to vote electronically while providing a paper backup of their ballot for the first time.
The nearly $4.5 million purchase of machines from Election Systems & Software fulfilled a state directive that all election systems produce a paper trail to track ballots. That rule was the result of national concerns about election integrity in the 2016 presidential election.
The voting machines do not have Wi-Fi capabilities and cannot be connected to the internet.
The system, ExpressVote, allows voters to use touchscreens to make selections. The machines then print paper ballots that include a barcode and plain text, giving voters a chance to look at the receipt to ensure their vote is recorded correctly.
The barcode is read by a scanner, casting the vote. Administrators
are able to look at how many ballots have been cast on the machine but are unable to match a vote to a person. The ballots are then secured in a bag in the tabulation machine until the polls close.
The judge of elections at each voting precinct removes the bag and securely closes it in the presence of two other poll workers. The judge of elections takes the bag to the county elections office on election night.
The plain text version serves as the official record of votes. The ballots remain in the elections office until the results are certified and then archived.
The testing process
The Pennsylvania Election Code requires each county to follow a directive issued by the secretary of the commonwealth that all election equipment undergo logic and accuracy testing before an election.
The directive states the testing is necessary to ensure ballot marking devices and scanners are properly configured and in good working order before being delivered to voting locations.
The first step in the process is ensuring the ballots are finalized for each precinct. That happens in the elections office on a secure computer that is not connected to the internet. Those ballots are then uploaded on encrypted USB sticks.
Once the ballots are uploaded the tests begin.
The testing process includes putting an encrypted USB stick into the machines to upload all the security passwords connected to this particular election. The machine will now know that the next USB stick has to have the appropriate passwords on it in order to successfully download the ballot.
Shoup and his staff check to see that the ballots have been loaded correctly onto the machines, then make selections on the ballot.
They take the ballot to the scanner belonging to that precinct to be tabulated.
Once ballots from all the machines in a precinct have been scanned, the scanner produces a paper and digital receipt. The digital receipt is uploaded to an encrypted USB stick, which is checked by elections office staff to make sure the results match the votes that were cast.
After the machines have been successfully tested, they are sealed and considered ready to be delivered. The machines will be moved to polling locations by staff from the county facilities department starting two weeks before the election.