Officials Say Monday Election Test 'Critical'

INDIANAPOLIS -- Marion County election officials are conducting a critical test Monday afternoon of their problem-plagued vote-counting software.

Election board workers have been running sample ballots through the election machinery to make sure it's working properly, 6News' Norman Cox reported.

Election officials said the tests are extremely important. If the tests are not successful, election workers will be forced to count thousands of votes by hand.

Marion County officials said the tests are being done at the last possible moment because of software delays from election vendor Election Systems and Software.

Workers fed between 600 and 1,000 ballots into the machines Monday morning. The ballots have the names of everyone running for office in Marion County above the level of precinct committeemen.

The tests are being conducted to make sure the software recognizes the names and properly records votes for them.

"It's absolutely critical," said Marion County Clerk Doris Anne Sadler. "This ... is really to make sure that when we put those machines out on election day, they are reading the ballots correctly. Because of all of our problems with ballots for the last three weeks, this is of critical importance."

The tests were going well through midday, Cox reported.

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