Equipment ensures safe, accessible election

Adair County election officials are hard at work making sure the upcoming general election is accurate and secure. Equipment they recently purchased will help them even more in accomplishing that goal.

Auditor Mandy Berg and her staff say this is the first general election that equipment recently purchased will be used on, though the equipment was also used for the recent primary election and a special election for West Central Valley Community School District voters.

Of the two pieces of new equipment, made by one of the three manufacturers Iowa approves for election equipment, one collects the ballots and counts bubbles.

The other machine is a ballot marking device that makes the election accessible to all, including those with any kind of accomodation called for in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Voters who need it can use this ballot marking device to mark their ballot on a screen, without having to write, or there are headphones available to use for those who need them. Anybody can use this device to mark their ballot.

This machine prints the ballot for it to be inserted into the other machine to be tabulated. At no time or in no way can these machines be connected to each other or connected to the internet, to maintain the utmost security.

Nathan Reed, Adair County Elections and Real Estate Deputy, said the machines give voters several chances to make sure their ballot is how they want it to be before it is cast. The machines also ensure that a voter cannot overvote, but they can undervote if they would like to.

The county received presentations from all three makers of election equipment. Narrowing it down to two, the finalists came and presented their equipment to those who oversee election precincts. As a result, the county decided to switch to a new manufacturer from their previous one. It ended up being the most cost effective choice as well, making the decision easier.

After the purchase, the company came and gave training to election officials. They will also be on-site on the day of the general election for any needs that arise.

The equipment was tested upon leaving the factory, and according to Iowa elections requirements, it was tested again upon delivery.

“That’s when we started looking for new equipment, and we really love it,” Berg said. “We felt like we were getting everything we wanted and needed.”

Preparation for an election starts several months in advance. The Secretary of State’s office began video conferencing to brief county auditor’s offices on things relating to the election cycle last January.

“Right after the primary, you start in with the general,” Reed said. “It hasn’t really been a year long, but it’s a good process that it starts.”

Preparations include building the election in the online database auditors across the state use as candidates of varying offices file their papers. Once that is complete, ballots are tediously prepared and sent to the printer. They are sent to overseas voters, many who are in uniform, by a certain date after the county receives them. This begins a long list of deadlines the auditor’s office has to meet prior to the election happening. They all fall on a specific number of days prior to the election.

These deadlines are for notices to be published, absentee ballots to be available for voters, press releases to be sent to the newspapers about candidate names, and so on. Press releases aren’t required by law, but Reed said they are sent in the interest of educating the public. Otherwise, the legal election notice can’t be printed until a certain date ahead of the election.

Polling places are confirmed for ADA compliance and election equipment is specially programmed before each election.

“There’s a lot that goes into the election — way more than I ever thought,” said Reed, who was hired in August 2023. “I had never thought about it until I had this job.”

Berg said it is her office’s top priority that things run smoothly on election day. There is a lot of preparation that goes into it.

“We want to be transparent about our process, want people to be involved and want people to ask questions,” Berg explained. “There’s nothing that we’re hiding. We just want people to be informed with the correct information.”