Public Test and Public Audit

September 18, 2024

Guest Column by Whitney Hein, Jones County Auditor and Commissioner of Elections

Public Test and Public Audit

                This article focuses on two opportunities each election cycle for the public to observe and learn about election processes. These opportunities are the public test and public audit. While there are other opportunities such as working as a precinct election official, poll watching, the canvass, etc., these two are not as well-known and are a learning experience for most.

                Public testing of equipment is required for every election per Iowa Code Section 52.35. The Iowa Administrative Code 721-22.41-22.43 goes into further detail on how to perform the public test. In short, every piece of optical scan equipment that is to be used on election day must go through a series of tests at least twelve hours before the polls open on election day. As Commissioner of Elections, I am required by law to publish the public testing notice in the newspaper inviting the public to observe the process and for partisan elections, I am also required to notify the local political party chairs of the testing day and time. In Jones County, my office has a goal to complete the public testing prior to the start of absentee voting. This is mainly due to manpower needed for those two activities. It helps spread out our workload if we can complete testing before the increased workload of absentee voting starts. The timing of our testing is usually dictated by when we receive our printed ballots. During testing, the same ballots that are used for absentee and election day voting must be used for testing. The only difference is that the ballots used for testing must be marked with the word “test ballot”.

                The tests performed during the public test are the systematic test, overvote test, blank ballot test, and orientation test. Each test has certain criteria on how those test ballots should be marked. My office marks all the test ballots by hand using the same type of black pen that is offered at the polls on election day. We create a test key that will show us which candidates to “vote” for on each test ballot. That key is also used to check our work. The total number of votes for a specific candidate on the answer key must match the results tape from the optical scan machine. If there are any discrepancies between the key and the results tape, the error must be found, corrected, and a perfect test run before the machine is certified for use in the election.

For the general election, we will be testing fourteen optical scan machines. This number allows for one optical scan machine at each polling location, two optical scan machines for the special precinct board, and two extra machines that could be used in the event of an emergency. Each of these fourteen machines will be assigned to a specific precinct or labeled as absentee and only the ballots used at that said precinct will be tested on that respective machine. This also means that my office will be marking a total of 2,310 test ballots to test machines! We will spend well over 100 manhours testing these machines. The public is welcome to observe this process and can even request to submit a test group of ballots to be tested.  

After the election is over, a public post-election audit will be called by the State Commissioner of Elections per Iowa Code Section 50.51. The day after election day the State Commissioner holds a random drawing and selects one precinct from every county to be audited. The local audit board consists of a bi-partisan team of precinct election officials. Their duty is to hand count one race on each ballot cast in the selected precinct and then verify that the total votes cast for that race equals the results tape that was printed on election day from the optical scan equipment. In Jones County, we generally hold this audit on the Monday following the election. For the General Election, it will be on the Tuesday following the election since Monday is a holiday. The notice of the post-election audit is posted in the Courthouse at least 24 hours prior to the start of the audit and the county political party chairs are notified at least 2 days prior to the audit start time. Anyone from the public is allowed to come and observe this process. Personally, this is one of my favorite processes during the election. It proves that optical scan machines are very accurate. There has never been a time in Jones County where the audit results did not match the results tape from the election day tabulator.

As always, please reach out to the Auditor’s office if you have any questions about the upcoming election.