Canton-Stark County Election Commission staff have completed testing of the last batch of new touch-screen Dominion voting system machines, which will be used on election day on November 2.

Full-time and seasonal election staff have conducted so-called logic and accuracy tests required by the state. Travis Secrest, one of the two administrative assistants to the board of directors, said that they ensure that the machine works, battery recharges, touch screen functions and the machine accurately counts votes.

The logic and accuracy test "is from beginning to end, our staff will check every component of the election day to ensure that the machine is operating normally. It receives the votes correctly. It tabulates correctly," he said.

Related: New Dominion voting machines begin to arrive in Stark County

The board staff tested a total of 1,408 Dominion machines. Stark County is using eight machines to conduct an on-site early voting at the office of the board of directors on Regent Avenue NE, Canton. The rest will be used on November 2nd. The board of directors will have 42 spare machines.

Secrest said it takes about 15 minutes for an employee to test a machine.

Secrest stated that the use of eight touch-screen voting machines in early voting did not find any problems, and voters generally praised these machines.

David Weiland and his wife Jo Weiland, who voted on the Election Committee last week, said they liked the changes.

"I think (the screen) is a bit bigger," said David Weiland, who added that there is no need to use a stylus on the screen. "I'm old, I can't see anything anyway... (touchscreen response) is instantaneous... I think they are great."

After multiple disputes and legal disputes about purchases, Dominion delivered 1,450 ImageCast X touch screen voting machines in July and August. They are equipped with larger touch screens, which are faster and more responsive than the old TSX touch screens used in the county since 2005. 

More: Commissioner Stark approves Dominion machine to comply with court order

The main difference is that the voter inserts a plastic card to tell the machine which ballot to put in the lower center of the machine instead of the slot in the upper right corner.

After the old trade-in, a machine equipped with a ballot server, four paper absent ballot scanners, memory cards and software is worth about 4.75 million U.S. dollars. The state paid US$3.27 million. Stark County paid US$1.48 million and needed to pay approximately US$331,550 each year to cover software license fees, hardware warranty, and ballot printing costs.

In May, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that state law requires the Stark County Commissioner to approve the purchase of funds. The three-person board refused to do so, saying that the election committee did not adequately review the acquisition after the 2020 presidential election.

More: Stark County Commissioner Refuses to Purchase Dominion Voting Machine

The repository observed some tests on a recent morning.

Workers at the board warehouse on Regent Avenue northeast prepared several machines for testing. The workers unzipped the duffel bags and took them out and put them on the shelf.

As part of the test, a worker used an electronic voting book to encode the cards of randomly selected voters. Another worker took a card and inserted it in. The other plugs the cable into the device.

A seasonal worker tested a machine used in Lake Meyers. His colleague tested a machine for Massillon. Sometimes, they would stop and take notes on the clipboard.

Both quickly reviewed the general election ballots of these communities and selected candidates, and conducted a test vote on taxation. They want to check in parliamentary elections. In the case where voters are required to vote for no more than three candidates, the machine does not allow voters to choose more candidates.

Then, two workers plug in their headsets and use the control panel to vote. They verified that the machine would read the office to vote, the name of the candidate, and the language used to tax visually impaired voters. The printer quietly printed the selection on the paper roll behind the plastic on the right. The workers checked whether the votes cast were consistent with the printed paper.

While they were testing, a warehouse supervisor affixed sealing strips to the ports and compartment doors of the machine. Secrest said that if someone tries to tamper with them or insert an unauthorized USB drive, it will be obvious to election workers.

Any opening of the port for maintenance must be recorded and witnessed by Republican and Democratic election staff. The chain of custody program tracks everyone who owns the machine.

Secrest said voters verified their votes on paper with glass or clear plastic. If the votes are recounted, the election staff will count the votes on paper. He said that all audits in the past checked the randomly selected machine-recorded ballots with the machine-recorded ballots, and the results showed that the ballots were consistent with the previous ones. Use TSX voting machine.

The ballot is printed on a continuous roll of paper, making any signs of tampering obvious. According to state law, voting machines and tabulation servers cannot be connected to the Internet.

"The paper printed in front of voters is the official ballot for the election," Secrest said. "So, no matter what conspiracy theories are out there, they ignore the key component of the paper that cannot be hacked."

After the test, the workers put the machine in a locked cage. Secrest said these cages help ensure that the machines cannot be tampered with before and after the election and protect them during transportation to the polling site.

In the morning of the election, Republican and Democratic poll workers will use the key to open the cage and verify that the machine’s number matches the machine assigned to the voting site.

The county’s 111 polling stations cover 276 electoral districts, and each polling station can have from three to 41 voting machines depending on the number of registered voters.

Each polling place will be designated for use by the visually impaired. These machines must pass logic and accuracy tests and audio system tests. 

Secrest said the test revealed about seven cases where election staff found that the battery was not fully charged or the printer cable was not connected properly. They quickly solved these problems. Secrest added that the new Dominion machine is equipped with a four-hour backup battery in case there is a power failure in the polling place.

He said the Ohio Secretary of State will require additional public testing of sample ballots overseen by the four-person election committee of a randomly selected voting machine on October 26.

Contact Robert (330) 580-8327 or robert.wang@cantonrep.com. Twitter: @rwangREP.