Missoula County tests ballot machines as primary election nears

Missoula, Mont. — With primary elections set for tomorrow, election centers across the state are preparing to process ballots.

In Missoula County, Elections Administrator Bradley Seaman demonstrated a test run of the county’s counting machines before staff began processing absentee ballots that had arrived early.

“We test it before we use it. We test it the day we use it, and then after the election. We're going to do a random sample audit [after]. We're going to hand-count ballots from seven different precincts, randomly selected, to make sure that the equipment did function correctly,” Seaman said.

County officials ran nearly 2,000 dummy ballots through each machine before using it on real ballots. Because they know what was marked on those test ballots, they could check whether the machines were calibrated correctly.

Seaman also said the machines were built to stay disconnected from networks.

“Each of these are an island, so they're not hooked up to the network. There's no Bluetooth. You can't hack into them over your phone. We export all of our results on USB sticks that are certified to help make sure that all of the information is secure, accurate and valid,” Seaman said.

Missoula County allows observers during all of its election proceedings and often holds voter education events.

Across Montana, people can also learn more about how elections are handled in their area through their county elections administrator.