Stutsman County will hold another open to the public test of the voting machines before the General election.

Pursuant to Century Code NDCC 16.1-06-15, public testing of the electronic voting system will be held on Thursday October 27 starting at 9 a.m. at the Election Room of the Stutsman County Courthouse. Anyone wishing to attend and assist with testing, may contact the Auditor’s Office at (701) 252-9035.

Prior to this, Stutsman County held an open-to-the-public demonstration of their voting machines ahead of the November 8 general election on October 17.

The public testing takes place before each election in accordance with the North Dakota Century Code.

Stutsman County Auditor Jessica Alonge says the public testing helps the staff to ensure the equipment is secure, and in operating order before election day.

Stutsman County IT Director Josh Smaage says when they start, they boot up each machine, wipe it from the past election and submit test ballots to ensure each one is working properly.

He says “These machines are locked up and not connected to the internet. This ensures there can be no tampering with the ballots or machines before, during, and after elections.”

When the testing was completed, the machines were marked and tracked by staff. Alonge says when the machines are taken to election sites, they will ensure they are the same marks made by the staff as another level of security to each machine.