Midland County Elections Office successfully tests voting machines

As the Midland City Council election approaches, the elections office is working to restore the public’s faith in their system after a chaotic MISD bond election.

Tuesday morning, the elections office held a thorough public demonstration to show how their tabulation machines work and to assure voters they will count every single vote accurately.

One by one, officials slid ballots into this tabulation machine under the watchful eye of a few people who came to see just exactly how this all works.

After three rounds of counting the same batch of test ballots, the results were the same.

Elections administrator Deborah Land said that came as no surprise to her.

“We’ve maintained from the beginning that the equipment counted everybody’s vote,” Land said. “I still maintain that.”

She said her staff has become much more comfortable with the new electronic voting equipment and is ready for this month’s election.

However, the elections office still has a long way to go to earn their reputation back after the MISD bond election came up with several different ballot tallies throughout the recount.

The office eventually discovered that’s because a box of 836 ballots was accidentally left in a storage room after election night.

Of course, it’s important to remember that was all due to human, not machine error.

A loose end the office is tightening with new procedures that will keep track of all voting information every step of the way.

“We will have its every little movement,” Land said. “So, we think that will help a lot down the road. Hopefully, we’ll never have to do this again. But we will have the abilities to do that if that need arises.”

Land said she hopes this election can be a second chance for the county.

“You trusted us before. It’s the same people working here. We do our best every day for not just us, we take pride in what we do for the Midland County voters.”

If you want to see the full demonstration for yourself you can find our livestream by visiting the CBS7 Facebook page.