Volunteers, officials test voting machines ahead of Election Day
Marion County will have 600 polling places
Posted: 10/22/2012
Last Updated:
210 days ago
INDIANAPOLIS - Voting machines in Marion County underwent stringent testing Monday to make sure every vote is counted on Election Day.
Testers, as required by state law, test both touch screens and optical scan machines and the software that counts each vote.
"We do read it into our tabulation software to make sure the tabulation software is pulling the data from these two machines and tabulating properly," said Michael Weiseman, Deputy Director of Elections.
A print-out lets testers compare the data to make sure the vote was counted correctly.
The testing process takes about three to four hours because there are 224 different ballot styles in Marion County, and each of them has to be tested.
Early voting is up 49 percent from the same period in 2008, and election officials said they're ready for a big turnout on Election Day, too.
But despite the 4,000 volunteers that will staff the 600 polling places in Marion County, voters might still have to wait.
"Voters should expect to be able to stand in line," said Marion County Clerk Beth White. "Election Day on a presidential general election is a heavy turnout election. Many, many people are very interested. We're going to train our poll workers to do everything they can to move the voters through, but be prepared to stand in line."
Extended hours began for early voting Monday. The new hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. now through noon on Monday, Nov. 5.
Copyright 2012 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
PRINT
