Ballot machine testing today

SANDPOINT — The Bonner County Clerk’s Office will be calibrating its ballot-tabulating equipment on Tuesday as the May 17 primary election draws closer.

The test decks will be run at 1 p.m. in the Bonner County Administration Building. The public is welcome to attend.

Clerk Michael Rosedale said test ballots will be run through the county’s two ballot-reading machines to ensure the computer software is working accurately.

The county has only had one ballot tabulator for years, but a second unit was donated by Ada County, which transitioned to a different method of county ballots.

“We will testing both,” Rosedale said.

The county runs test decks of ballots through the optical scanning machines prior to every election.

Rosedale said the pre-marked ballots will be run through the machines to verify they are being properly read. If the machines produce results which vary from the marked ballots, the county will work with the company that drafted the software to smooth out any wrinkles in the tabulation process.

The second machine will double the county’s capacity to count ballots.