GREENFIELD — With early voting in Hancock County starting up next week, county officials conducted a public test on multiple voting machines Thursday and found the system to be in working order.
Members of the Hancock County Election Board, party chairpersons, local candidates and county employees cast mock ballots in the county’s three types of election equipment at the election board meeting, testing to see if the machines would catch invalid entries, such as voting for multiple candidates and not filling in a ballot box the correct way.
Marcia Moore, county clerk, said the voting system is “air gapped” as a security measure. That means poll books and voting equipment aren’t connected in any way or hooked up to the internet. Hancock County voters fill in paper ballots with pen or pencil and insert them into tabulation machines, which will either accept or reject the ballot. On Thursday, the system caught different types of voided ballots.
The county has one type of tabulator that scans one ballot at a time and another piece of equipment that can handle multiple papers, which is used to tabulate absentee ballots. Using paper ballots gives the county a backup in case of computer errors, Moore said.
“Count the paper if we have to,” she added.
During the 2016 primary election, a software glitch caused an error in county votes. Moore said it ended up affecting about 300 ballots, and poll workers had to spend hours counting those ballots by hand.
Officials also tested a new touchscreen voting machine that’ll be used as a pilot program during early voting at the Hancock County Courthouse and McCordsville Town Hall. Moore said those machines, which are also available for voters with any type of disability, run much faster than voters filling out a paper ballot by hand. It also uses a computer-generated paper ballot as a backup, she said.
“We’re just trying it,” Moore said. “It may not work and people may say we don’t like it. That’s why it’s called a pilot.”
Early voting lasts from Oct. 10 until Nov. 5 in the county. The courthouse will have six touchscreen machines, while McCordsville will have four. Moore said poll workers will read a narrative to voters on how to use the machine. On Election Day, Nov. 6, both vote centers will only use the paper ballot method.
Election board members Bob Bogigian, the Democratic Party appointee, and John Apple, the Republican Party’s representative, signed off on the voting equipment test results at the end of Thursday’s meeting.
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Early voting at the Hancock County Courthouse and McCordsville Town Hall begin on Oct. 10 and lasts until Nov. 5.
Weekday hours are from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.; on Oct. 27 and Nov. 3, hours are from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.. Early voting ends at noon on Nov. 5.
Early voting at the Hancock County Public Library branches in Greenfield and New Palestine start Oct. 27 and last until Nov. 4.
Weekday hours are from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday hours are from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Sunday hours are from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Hancock County Courthouse, 9 E. Main St., Greenfield
McCordsville Town Hall, 6280 W. 800 North, McCordsville
Hancock County Public Library — Greenfield, 900 W. McKenzie Road, Greenfield
Hancock County Public Library — New Palestine, 5087 W. U.S. 52, New Palestine
Source: Hancock County Clerk’s Office
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