County clerks in Southern Utah are testing systems in advance of election day

St. George, Utah – Washington County clerks conducted a test run on Wednesday to ensure that everything was prepared for the vote count, as the election is now less than three weeks away.
Using the test, officials attempted to convince voters that, provided they cast their ballots on time, their votes would be counted on election day.

One of the biggest machines on show just arranged the unopened envelopes by precinct and verified that the signatures on the envelopes belonged to the voters; it did not count ballots or determine who was elected. This is only the beginning of the procedure that will eventually lead to a different machine scanning the ovals and tallying the votes.

The public and media representatives were shown the full process by Ryan Sullivan, the primary election clerk for Washington County.

“All these thousands of ballots from audits have directly come into contact with other teams.” “I have complete faith that these machines are accurately reading the ballots,” he declared.

However, David Johnson of Washington City, one of the admittedly small number of public observers during the test run, stated that after witnessing everything in operation, he remains skeptical of the machines.

Johnson, a local and state Republican delegate, stated, “I worked with machines, electronics, and things for part of my working career.” “I am aware that, like people, machines can make mistakes. Furthermore, I am aware that any system can be tricked.

Nothing is 100%, but according to Sullivan, there is no possibility for a computer hacker to get into the voting machines in Washington County or any other polling place in the state. He said that every voter’s personal information from each ballot, including their name and the candidates they supported, is kept locally on an internal system in every county and is not accessible online. The raw scores that each candidate or measure obtains are the only things that are distributed.

In the end, Sullivan offered three suggestions to voters to make sure their ballots are counted. The most important one is to use the drop boxes instead of the mailbox.

When it comes to dropping off something, Sullivan stated, “I can assure you one thing: everything will arrive.” “My employees are the ones who pick them up. They will always find their way back to this location.

What other assurance is there?

Sullivan stated, “I would just strongly advise that people cast their ballots in person.” “I personally like to use a drop box if I don’t vote in person.”

Sullivan admits that some people won’t be able to avoid using the mailbox.

Since the 2010s, mail from Washington and Iron County has been processed in Las Vegas, two hours away, which created a problem for this year’s congressional primary.

1,100 voters who believed they were following the correct procedure because they mailed their ballots before a certain date had their votes not counted because ballots were not stamped in time due to the mail being sent to Nevada and then returned, according to Johnson. This is simply not how our country is supposed to conduct elections.

That will remain the procedure in November. Sullivan stated he has visited with postmasters to ensure the ballots are secure, despite the fact he has no influence over the Postal Service. Nevertheless, he claimed that voters who are mailing their ballots cannot wait until the very last minute.

“Vote early if you’re going to mail in your ballot,” said Sullivan. In order to ensure that the ballot has a clear postmark date, I would also take it to the post office and have it manually stamped if election day is drawing near. At the very least, that must occur the day before the election.

He clarified that merely placing a ballot in the mail on election day does not guarantee that it will receive a postmark on that day.

Sullivan advised against mailing your ballot on election day since it will be delayed, no matter what. “If Election Day arrives and you have your ballot, you should bring it to a drop box or visit one of our in-person voting locations.

According to Sullivan, additional measures are in place to guarantee that each vote is counted exactly once.

• A person who had already voted by a mail-in ballot that goes to a polling place will be flagged if they vote again. In addition, the machines at the in-person voting sites will read one mailed in as invalid no matter how it is filled out.
• A person who has not voted in two years will no longer be mailed a ballot. If they vote in person, their ballot will be considered provisional until it is double-checked.
• At least in Washington County, all of the drop boxes are under 24-hour surveillance. And there are certain seals that assure they can only be opened by an election official.