Cape Girardeau County election officials, public view voting machine demonstrations

Representatives from three companies demonstrated how their equipment works to Cape Girardeau County election staff and poll workers during a presentation at the Osage Centre in cape Girardeau on Friday, May 10.

Around two dozen members of the public, many of them poll workers, attended the demonstrations in addition to Cape Girardeau County Clerk Kara Clark Summers and some of her staff.

First, account representative Laura Schaefer from Adkins Election Services of Clinton introduced the audience to the Unisyn OpenElect Voting System 2.2.

Next, Cory Nibert, owner of Elkins-Swyers Co. of Springfield showcased the Dominion D-Suite 5.17 Voting System.

After his presentation, regional sales manager Rob Wiebusch from Election Systems & Software of Omaha, Nebraska demonstrated the EVS 6.3.0.0 Voting System.

Representatives from the Austin, Texas-based Hart InterCivic initially signed up to show off their election equipment as well. However, Summers said they declined to attend, citing the hour-long demonstration timeframe as being too short for their liking.

Cape Girardeau County Clerk Kara Clark Summers (right) talks about the election night ballot security process during a public event on Friday, May 10, 2024 while account representative Laura Schaefer from Adkins Election Services of Clinton looks on. Summers will upgrade the county's 13-year-old election system with a new one, ideally in time for the August 6, 2024 primary elections.Christopher Borro ~ cborro@semissourian.com

Whichever company’s equipment is ultimately chosen, Summers said she wanted them to be in use in time for the Aug. 6 primary elections.

“We want the best equipment for Cape Girardeau County. We want the most secure equipment. We’ve had that in the past, and we want to continue that,” she said.

New voting equipment would be of higher quality and would more closely comply with federal and state electoral standards. The county has used an older model of Unisyn equipment for the last 13 years.

Summers and the presenters made clear that election security and integrity was a high priority.

“Our state has very good voting laws. We want to do everything we can to protect those voting laws,” Summers said. “We don’t have ballot drop boxes; we have signature verification for absentee ballots.”

Each presentation was followed by numerous questions from the audience. They requested information about security checks and procedures on Election Day, the operational lifespan of the voting equipment and whether the machines connect to the internet.

Each machine would last between 10 and 15 years, and none of them connect to the internet, the company representatives said.

“Nothing is transmitted electronically. It’s all done by people like you, and it’s all done basically by hand at this point,” Summers said.

Cory Nibert, owner of Elkins-Swyers Co. of Springfield, points to a voting machine during public election equipment demonstrations at the Osage Centre on Friday, May 10, 2024. Nibert, along with representatives from two other companies, showcased election security measures and ADA compliance features.Christopher Borro ~ cborro@semissourian.com

Poll workers in each precinct tabulate their own votes and bring them to Jackson for an audit of a random 5% of the ballots, Summers said. A Democrat and Republican judge drive together from each of the 28 polling places to the counting center there.

A hand count is done if there are discrepancies, Summers added, but to had count every race on every ballot would likely take a week or more, especially since elections with higher turnout can see more than 45,000 votes cast across Cape Girardeau County.

Summers estimated the election equipment would cost between $300,000 and $500,000, with the county commissioners already preparing for the expenditure in their annual budget.

Each election system showcased had various ADA compliances for wheelchair users and blind or hard-of-seeing voters. The company representatives showed how poll workers can take ballots out of the tabulators for counting and storing purposes.

The systems all operate as, essentially, a giant pen or pencil – something each presenter made mention of. They described how they mark which candidates voters have chosen, and these are then fed into a tabulator for counting purposes.

Adkins Election Services supplies equipment to some 150 counties across Missouri, Iowa and Kansas. Elkins-Swyers Co. primarily operates in Missouri and Arkansas. Elections Systems & Software is the largest election equipment company in the nation with around 50% of the overall market share.