DUVAL COUNTY, Fla. – The Duval County Supervisor of Elections Office showed off its election equipment to the public Thursday afternoon.
It is part of what the Supervisor of Elections calls the “Public Logic and Accuracy test.”
It’s a state-required test that is meant to ensure every vote will be correctly counted when the August primary comes around.
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The test involves a random sample of equipment, including a tabulator from each of the 14 Jacksonville City Council Districts, one early voting site and all four high-speed tabulators. The test run is meant to ensure the machines’ accuracy.
To do that, the elections office ran sample ballots, with votes for every candidate on the ballot. The elections office had a printout of what the tabulators should calculate and at the end of the test, they checked to make sure everything matched. Clearence Johnson, who is a registered Democrat, decided to see how it works for himself.
“Just curiosity, I work the polls anyway,” Johnson said. “I’ve been working those about 30 years. But curiosity, it’s something about elections. I come and see how things are going.”
This testing has been a requirement in Florida for years. Rod Sullivan is general counsel for the Duval County Republican Party. He stopped by to watch the process and said this is about making sure things are done right.
“We always have concerns about mail-in ballots, we have concerns about drop boxes,” Sullivan said. “We have concerns about people dropping off multiple ballots in a drop-boxes and we look to get those questions answered.”
Sullivan said he was pleased by what he saw Thursday.
“They’re correctly reading the ballots and they’re correctly rejecting those ballots that should be rejected,” Sullivan said. “So, I’m very confident that the machine balloting is working well.”
Duval County Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland said the final result of Thursday’s testing was 100% accuracy, as it’s always been. Holland stressed the importance of why this testing is conducted.
“Confidence in the elections is confidence that whoever gets elected, was elected in an honest and accurate fashion,” Holland explained. “When it comes to elections, 100% is the only thing you can. Anything less than that is a problem.”
Holland said later in the day, the team would remove the votes and seal the equipment so that it would not be tampered with. Then, they will get it ready for election day and early voting as well as start counting any mail-in ballots. There will be more tests before the November election. Johnson said he’s looking forward to that time.
“I think it’s going to be kind of tight,” Johnson said. “I’ve got my favorite. Everybody has got their favorite. I’m going to see how it turns out. I’ll be here.”
If you have any questions about the test you are encouraged to call the Duval County Elections Office at 904-255-VOTE (8683) or visit the elections office website at duvalelections.gov.