MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - Tuesday was a busy day for Mobile County Probate Court staff. It was another opportunity to ensure everything runs smoothly on Election Day.
Voting machines are a key tool used to cast ballots. With election integrity a major concern this for some voters, testing these machines ahead of time is important.
"We operate in Mobile County under the concept of trust, but verified and this is just a vital part of that," said Judge Don Davis, Mobile County chief elections officer.
Throughout the morning, staff tested nearly 200 voting machines that will be used on Election Day.
"Not only do we want to test the machines for accurately recognizing votes and tallies, we want to also test the machines to recognize anomalies," explained Mark Erwin, Chief Clerk and Mobile County Probate Court.
The process involves testing every type of ballot to ensure each machine operates properly. For example, blank ballots, absentee ballots, provisional ballots, and even photocopied ballots are run through each machine to ensure they're rejected correctly.
"And then we randomly pick a ballot from another precinct and confirm that this precinct machine would not run the ballot from another precinct," Erwin adds.
After that, team members test a small stack of pre-filled ballots to make sure the machines produce accurate results. They also confirm that each machine starts with a zero count.
Mobile County voter Wayne Christopher attended the public session saying, "I've looked into our elections quite a bit and I don't trust these tabulators anymore. I don't really see much use in it. But I want to see what they're doing because I know the public's not looking."
Despite Christopher's doubts, Judge Don Davis assures the public that the work they're doing is trustworthy saying, "They can have faith and confidence in what we do here in Mobile County and also in the state of Alabama because all Alabama counties use the same machinery and have the same procedures."
Staff also tested absentee ballot reading systems at the Probate Court office downtown. The machines will be locked, sealed, zeroed out, wrapped and deployed to their designated polling location next week.