Editor's note: The pictures in this story were taken during the demonstration of the new voting system. The final ballots used on election day are expected to look slightly different, but the voting process will be the same. RCN associate editor Connor Wall, author of this report, is a poll worker during local elections.
Kenton County Clerk Gabrielle Summe showcased and demonstrated the county's new voting machines to an audience of experienced poll workers Thursday morning. The machines are expected to make their debut in the primary election of the 2022 races.
"Prior to the pandemic and any of the federal monies, we knew that our voting equipment was aging and that we needed to get new equipment," Summe said. "On the way to that, we started looking at two major companies that were certified by the federal government and then also certified by Kentucky. That was Hart and ES&S."
Kenton County is using the ES&S system while Campbell and Boone Counties are proceeding with Hart.
One of the most notable changes to the way voters will cast their choices in Kenton County is the discontinuation of the E-Poll: the large, grey, and completely digital voting machine. Summe has shifted the voting procedure towards having a more thorough papertrail for each vote that is cast.
"One of the things that we were looking for when we were reviewing everything is not just ease for the voter, but also the ease of being able to explain it to people and poll workers who are working on election day," Summe continued.
Instead of the e-poll, voters will be offered either a paper ballot, or a long thin receipt-like paper that can be used with the new ExpressVote machine, which features a touch screen that citizens will cast their votes on. After completing the ballot, the ExpressVote machine will print the voter's completed ballot which must be then deposited into the upgraded yet familiar big black ballot collector.
The ExpressVote boasts many improvements compared to the now antiquated E-Poll. Of particular note is its lightweight design and easy setup procedure, which Summe says was chosen intentionally to reduce the burden placed on the often-elderly poll workers that are in charge of setting up the machines on election day.
Photo: Samples of the new ballot types
Photo: The new ExpressVote machine
Photo: The upgraded yet familiar black ballot collector
"It's a much cleaner and easier way and people are already very accustomed to touch screens and I think they will continue to stay so this is a lovely upgrade," Summe said. "Also with the new changes in House Bill 574, I didn't have to buy as much equipment."
HB574 legislates some changes that were made to the voting procedure by Secretary of State Michael Adams last year in the midst of Covid such as the optional use of a mass voting center and the consolidation of voting precincts.
Summe also stated that her office plans to release more information about the new voting system through videos, made with the Telecommunications Board of Northern Kentucky, and other advertising.
"I want everybody to know about it in advance, so we will be educating them," Summe said. "That should take away some of the confusion about the new equipment, for those who are using it, as well as how elections work and how secure they are."
Election security was a recurring theme throughout Summe's demonstration. The upgraded ballot collectors feature two encrypted flash drives, one to be used as a backup; a myriad of locks protecting those flash drives, the box the ballots are collected into, the panel that houses that ballot box, the collection tray on top of the machine, another box that collects 'ruined' or 'spoiled ballots,' and the power cord; and lastly a digital image scan of each ballot that is processed through the machine. Moreover, none of the ballot equipment is connected to the internet.
"People have to feel like their vote counted," she said. "We've always had security protocols, they just never were named 'risk limiting audits' or things of that nature."
Summe expressed a willingness to engage with anyone wanting to know more about Kenton County's election process and said she takes any reports of fraud seriously and turns those reports over to the commonwealth for thorough investigation. She also conveyed transparency, saying that she would happily oblige any questions or open record requests so voters could see the integrity of Kenton County's elections for themselves.
"If part of our failure is that we are not educating people so that they know what their system looks like in their particular county, but rather how elections as a whole work, then that's not a good thing," Summe explained before outlining some of the more confusing aspects of the voting and election procedure. "If you understand that process, then when you go to vote I think you've got a base of knowledge that really enforces how your vote is counted."
How the new voting equipment works:
If voters choose to cast a traditional paper ballot, they will simply fill in the bubbles next to their selections and deposit the ballot into the ballot collector.
If voters choose to use the ExpressVote equipment, they will receive a thin blank page which they will place into the machine to begin the process.
The screen will then display the races the voter is eligible to take part in.
The machine is handicap accessible and allows the voters to change the text size on the screen for those hard-of-seeing, or make their selections using a pair of headphones and a selection peripheral that has braille markings on it for those that are blind.
Much like the E-Poll, the ExpressVote machine will not let voters mistakenly overcast their ballot.
Once completed, voters then review and print their ballot.
Then simply deposit it into the same collection collection box to be tabulated in real time with the rest of the ballots.
The ExpressVote system offers an additional layer of security beyond the papertrail by utilizing another set of two encrypted flash drives that record each ballot completed on it.
-Connor Wall, associate publisher
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