Voting machines tested in Brunswick County ahead of November election

BRUNSWICK COUNTY, NC (WWAY) –The Brunswick County Board of Elections began testing voting machines on Thursday in Bolivia, in preparation for November’s election.

The testing ensures that ballots, scanners, and any other components of the voting machines are properly working, and is conducted by a bipartisan team. Test ballots are run through the machine, and the results are compared to the expected result from the pre-marked sample ballots.

The tests check the machine’s ability to read each ballot style, and that it counts accurately.

“If something were wrong, and we caught it during this testing period, we would have time to correct whatever that error is. We test everything, we even test the ballots that come in pre-printed from our printer to make sure that they read in the machine properly. Even if we’ve already done this test, we want to test those ballots as well,” said Sara LaVere, Brunswick County Board of Elections director.

The testing is open to the public, it will continue September 16, and September 19-21.