Union County sets public test of election tabulating equipment

Union County election officials put the county’s tabulating equipment before the public at 10 a.m. Friday at the Elections Office in the Union County Government Center, 155 N. 15th St. in Lewisburg, using a required pre-primary test to show that ballots will be counted correctly on May 19.

The logic and accuracy test is one of the most basic election-security steps counties must complete before every election in Pennsylvania. State law requires the central automatic tabulating equipment to be tested by the fourth day before an election, and counties must give at least 48 hours public notice in a county newspaper. The point is to catch problems before voters cast ballots and before those ballots are tabulated.

In Union County, the test also offered a visible check on the county’s voting system, which uses the Unisyn Freedom Vote Tablet to mark ballots and the OpenElect Voting Optical Scanner to cast completed ballots. State guidance says logic and accuracy testing is meant to verify that ballots, scanners, ballot-marking devices and the rest of the certified system are properly configured and working. It also gives political parties, candidates, the media and voters a chance to see that the county has taken the time to test its equipment.

The timing mattered because the county is headed into Pennsylvania’s primary election on Tuesday, May 19. The registration deadline for that primary passed May 4, and the deadline to request a mail-in or absentee ballot passed May 12. Completed mail-in and civilian absentee ballots must reach the county election office by 8 p.m. on primary day.

Union County’s Elections & Voter Registration Office is based at the Government Center in Lewisburg, and the county lists Jeff Reber as chairman of the Board of Elections, with Preston Boop and Stacy Richards serving as commissioners. Laura Seward is elections director, and Colin Hardman is deputy election coordinator and registrar.

For local voters, the test was more than routine paperwork. It was a public checkpoint built into the election calendar, meant to show that the county is not waiting until Election Day to confirm its machines are ready, and that its tabulation process is being handled in the open before the first ballot is counted.