HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - Madison County held its public voting test ahead of election day, not only to prepare voters, but to also make sure the equipment used is recording votes correctly.
"The voting process, the types of equipment that's used, varies from state to state," said Frank Barger, Madison County Elections Administrator.
"All counties in the state of Alabama use the machine that we use, a DS-200. Those machines cannot be remoted into, results, tabulation cannot be manipulated electronically."
Ensuring transparency, Barger says our paper ballot system is highly secure to avoid any sort of rigged situation. But what if you want to write in your candidate?
"Our machines have the capability every time someone writes in a candidate, the machine actually scans and documents that and we can simply write a report after the fact," said Barger.
Although, there is one catch.
"They are only canvassed and certified if the number of write-ins in any category affect the outcome of a race," explained Barger.
One added bonus, this operation makes the results available much more quickly.
"Prior to this general election, in every general election they had to be hand counted and hand tallied at each polling location, in which some instances could take several hours," said Barger.
Wednesday's public test is the third level of testing for Madison County's voting machines.