ATLANTA — State election officials are making sure Tuesday’s election is safe and secure.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Mark Winne that voting machines from three randomly selected counties were collected for an audit.
Machines from Barrow, Jasper and Spalding counties were tested for tampering, malfunctions and accuracy.
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“It’s not required by state law or state election board, but we wanted to make sure that voters have that additional vote of confidence,” Raffensperger said.
Voting systems specialist Chris Bellew did a demonstration of what their team did before polls opened on Tuesday morning.
Bellew says last week, his team created a variety of ballots using the Secretary of State’s equipment, then entered the same votes on machines investigators collected Election Day morning.
“We are making sure that if we press the exact same buttons on our copy and on their copy, they produce the exact same results,” Bellew said.
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He says his team compared the ballots and the tape of cumulative results from last week and this week and made sure they matched.
U.S. Attorney Theodore Hertzberg says the Department of Justice is also monitoring the election process, but is not politically motivated.
“We’re making sure that Americans are able to access the polls, that their rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Voting Rights Act are protected and enforced,” he said. “This is not a partisan endeavor by any means. This is about making sure that Americans can vote and that legal votes are counted.”
The DOJ has 12 teams in the field monitoring the election. Hertzberg says DOJ monitors have not found any major issues in metro Atlanta.
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