Kanawha County Clerk Vera McCormick shows a voting machine in operation, on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, that will be used during the upcoming early-voting period for the 2024 primary election.
From left: Kanawha County Commission President Lance Wheeler and Commissioner Kent Carper approved the testing of voting machines with County Clerk Vera McCormick on Wednesday, April 24, 2024.
Kanawha County Clerk Vera McCormick shows a voting machine in operation, on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, that will be used during the upcoming early-voting period for the 2024 primary election.
KENNY KEMP | Gazette-Mail
The Kanawha County Commission convened Wednesday for a public test of the county’s voting machines prior to the early-voting period for the 2024 primary election, which runs May 1-May 11.
Each location will have one vote tabulator machine and a handful of voting machines, depending on the anticipated volume. The voting machines and tabulators are manufactured by Election Systems & Software of Omaha, Nebraska.
ES&S serves about 1,700 county-level jurisdictions in 40 states and Washington D.C., according to Katina Granger, the company’s senior manager of public relations.
The ExpressVote machines do not allow voters to overvote — voting for more candidates for a specific office than allowed. Undervoting is allowed, said County Clerk Vera McCormick.
The test took about 45 minutes Wednesday morning at the Voter Registration Office, 415 Quarrier St. in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä. McCormick and her staff tested that the tabulators could clear all votes from each machine — returning a sheet showing zero votes had been recorded — before voting begins.
They also tested two machines in the tabulation room with 47 ballots each to make sure each candidate could receive a vote. The other machines had been previously tested. McCormick verified that all tested ballots were read.
The ballot is lengthy for this election, containing federal, state, county and some municipal candidates. A sample ballot is available at bit.ly/SampleBallotWVMay24.
Commissioners Lance Wheeler and Kent Carper signed off on the testing, along with McCormick and representatives from the county’s Democrat and Republican parties.
“Boring is a good thing,†Carper said of the test.
From left: Kanawha County Commission President Lance Wheeler and Commissioner Kent Carper approved the testing of voting machines with County Clerk Vera McCormick on Wednesday, April 24, 2024.
KENNY KEMP | Gazette-Mail
Absentee ballots
McCormick said that 485 absentee ballots had been mailed out to county residents, a number she said was “kind of low.†She said 220 have been returned.
Absentee ballots must be requested by May 8 and postmarked by May 14. Only a small subsection of voters are eligible for absentee ballots. Learn more and download the application at bit.ly/WVAbsentee. The application can be delivered in-person, by mail, fax or email.
Another test will be run on May 7 and on May 14 before votes are tabulated.
The tabulation room at the Voter Registration Office was locked with four padlocks — one for each of the commissioners and McCormick. The room with the early voting machines was also locked with a padlock for Wheeler, commission president, and McCormick.
McCormick said that Kanawha County voters could trust their elections because of the checks and balances in the system.
“If that count [on the tabulator] says you have 200 ballots, you’re going to have 200 ballots in there, and you can count them,†she said.
Carper agreed.
“I can’t think of a more transparent process than you just saw this morning,†he said.
