UPPER NAZARETH TWP., Pa. — Northampton County elections workers began logic and accuracy testing of the county’s nearly 300 voting machines Monday, hoping to catch any programming errors before Election Day.
But what was a closely watched testing process in April, after insufficient testing failed to catch an error that caused confusion during the 2023 general election, was once again a sleepy part of the pre-vote process.
“There's not many people that came in today, so the interest was definitely larger for the primary than it is now. I'm not sure the reason, but it certainly is less.”Northampton County Registrar Chris Commini
Logic and accuracy testing have county workers enter a set of pre-counted test votes into each ExpressVote XL machine. Once all are entered, the machines' recorded results should match the pre-counted ballots.
“There's not many people that came in today, so the interest was definitely larger for the primary than it is now,” said Registrar Chris Commini, Northampton County’s top elections administrator.
“I'm not sure the reason, but it certainly is less.”
So far, testing going smoothly
In the 2023 election, an employee with Omaha, Nebraska-based voting machine manufacturer Election Systems and Software mislabeled two judicial retention races on the paper backups voters see before submitting their ballot.
The error only was apparent to voters who voted “yes” in one retention race and “no” in the other. Because that combination did not appear in the set of votes used to test machines, elections workers could not tell there was a problem.
“The new testing panel that we’ve implemented will be able to capture any of those issues."Northampton County Registrar Chris Commini
Ahead of the primary this spring, the county tweaked procedures to create more variety in the test ballots and to require workers to document testing each machine.
This week’s testing will follow the same up-to-32-step process from earlier this year, which Commini is confident will reveal any lurking problems.
“The new testing panel that we’ve implemented will be able to capture any of those issues,” he said.
So far, testing was going smoothly, Commini said early Monday afternoon.
Log and accuracy testing is set to continue through Thursday at the elections warehouse at 10 Gracedale Ave., Upper Nazareth, and is open to the public.
