The San Benito County Elections Office on Aug. 13 gave a public demonstration of the voting ballot system used in the county, producing test ballots with ballot marking devices and a ballot-on-demand printer that is used at voting centers.
David Quick, chief deputy county clerk, said the demonstration entailed using pre-printed ballots that were the same as those mailed to voters, as well as ballots voters could request at polling places to hand write their votes.
He said the county conducts logic and accuracy testing on the systems used in each voting center before every election. He said the demonstration was intended to promote transparency of the process for voters. Five people showed up for the demonstration including San Juan Bautista Councilmember John Freeman and former San Benito County Assistant Clerk-Recorder-Registrar Angela Curro.
“We want the folks to come in here and see we are transparent and that we do care about election integrity and our security,” Quick said. “We want them to know this testing takes place. We don’t just come up with a ballot and send it out to people without having done any work ahead of time.”
Quick said the Dominion system San Benito County has used for the last four years is the same one that was alleged to have created systemic voter fraud across the country during the 2020 presidential election. Dominion is suing conservative media outlets and others for defamation.
He also said the county’s system was certified by the California secretary of state and approved by the Board of Supervisors. Quick noted that when the last software update was completed in 2020 the secretary of state told Dominion to conduct a source code review which was also certified.
For the purpose of the demonstration, hand-marked and machine-created ballots were scanned by a central counting tabulator. If there were issues with a ballot it would be sent to the adjudication system. Then a two-person team would verify what they thought the voter’s intent was. If they could not agree, a supervisor would make the determination.
“Sometimes people will make a little mark or write with a light pencil and the scanner’s not going to read it,” he said. “But a human being can say they know the voter meant to make this choice.”
Rob Bernosky, Chairman of the San Benito County Republican Party attended and he questioned the use of the Dominion machines. Quick said other than the state’s certification of the system, there wasn’t much more that could be done to convince him the system was anything less than 100% accurate. Even so, he said the county would continue to conduct its own mandated testing before every election.
“We’ll have people here marking ballots just like they would if they were at a voter center or their home, then run them through the system to verify that the results are what we expect and are the results that we get,” he said, adding that if the results are not what they expect, then they have to determine if a human or machine error was responsible.
Bernosky wondered about the “air gap” or potential for tampering between the system and the internet. He told BenitoLink he wanted to be assured the system was not “connected to anything that would allow the firmware or operating system to be manipulated.”
Quick explained that the server for the system was not connected to the internet and was a totally enclosed system. County Clerk Joe Paul Gonzalez added that additional security is provided by a two-person integrity rule, meaning there are always two people in voting centers, as well as at voting boxes when ballots are collected. He also said the room the demonstration was taking place in was a secure room that is being recorded 24 hours a day.
The test took 90 minutes and Quick said the results were 100% accurate for the 94 test ballots.
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