Officials: Johnson County’s voting equipment ready for primary elections

March 20, 2024

Johnson County’s election equipment is ready for May primary elections, despite two machines having to be retested during a public test.

Election officials and a representative from MicroVote, the county’s election equipment vendor, held a public test of voting equipment during a Johnson County Election Board meeting at the courthouse Wednesday. For the test, officials set up 16 voting machines with attached voter-verified paper audit trail systems, or VVPATs, and an absentee ballot reader.

All of the equipment passed the tests, said Trena McLaughlin, county clerk. The roughly 2.5-hour test mostly went off without any issues, though two machines were retested due to human error.

For the test, McLaughlin, Democratic election board member Kevin Service, Republican election board member Doug Lechner and another clerk’s office employee cast sample ballots on an equal number of machines to make sure there were no errors.

The test was advertised and the public was welcome to attend, but no one did.

Democratic and Republican ballots from several of the county’s precincts were used for the test, including those in Franklin, Greenwood, Prince’s Lakes and White River Township. It took each tester less than five minutes to submit a ballot, which is about how long it should take someone to vote once they reach the booth during early voting or on Election Day.

The 16 machines represent a portion of the 232 total machines that will be used for the upcoming election. Of the 16 voting machines tested Wednesday, 12 are assigned for use on Election Day, May 7. The remaining machines are assigned to be used at early voting centers.

To test each machine, members of the election board and staff cast ballots on the machine and then marked on a paper sample ballot what they voted. Once all the machines are tested, officials go over the VVPAT receipts and compare them with what was marked on the paper sample ballots to ensure that the votes are accurately counted. VVPATs are designed to show voters who they voted on paper before sending in their vote on the machine, essentially a voter’s “double-check” to make sure their vote is counted accurately.

As officials were verifying votes cast on the machines, they discovered that two machine’s VVPAT receipts showed fewer votes than what the paper sample ballots did. This was later determined to be a result of human error on the paper sample ballots, as the person marked they voted for someone on the paper ballots but actually didn’t vote for them on the machines, McLaughlin said.

There were no issues with the machines, she said.

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To be safe, officials completely reset the voting machines and re-conducted the tests. This time the receipts matched what was marked on the sample ballots, she said.

With the public test complete, results from the public test will be sent to the Indiana Secretary of State’s Office for certification.

In other election business, election officials have begun mailing out absentee ballots for voters who have already applied and been approved. More than 360 ballots have been sent out so far, McLaughlin said.

Voters can still apply for mail-in absentee ballots as the deadline is noon April 25. They can apply online at indianavoters.in.gov or in-person at Johnson County Voter Registration.

Looking ahead, voters going to polls for early voting and Election Day should also be aware that they cannot vote straight-ticket, as only one party will be on their ballot for the primaries.

Voter registration is continuing until the second week of April. Hoosiers have until midnight April 8 if doing so online at indianavoters.in.gov. However, the deadline is different if registering in person at Johnson County Voter Registration, located in the basement of the Johnson County Courthouse, 5 E. Jefferson St., Franklin.

Because the county government will be closed on April 8 due to the solar eclipse, the deadline to register in-person will be extended by one day, until 4:30 p.m. April 9, McLaughlin previously said.

Residents can also register to vote at any license branch but should check with the voter registration office to make sure their application went through before the deadline.

In-person early voting is set to begin April 9. The Johnson County Courthouse will be open for voting starting that week, with five other vote centers scattered throughout the county open the two weeks leading up to Election Day.

Three retirement community satellite vote centers, located at Greenwood Village South, Otterbein SeniorLife and Compass Park, will be open for four hours on two separate days.

Twenty-two vote centers will be open at 19 locations on May 7 from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Three locations — Mt. Pleasant Christian Church, Grace Assembly of God and Scott Hall at the Johnson County Fairgrounds — will feature two vote centers at the same location.

There are 27 offices up for election this May in Johnson County — federal, state, county, municipal, precinct committeemen and state convention delegates.

Contested races for Republicans include Indiana governor, U.S. Congress, Johnson County Council At-Large, county coroner, county commissioner District 3, Prince’s Lakes Town Council At-Large and Indiana Senate District 37. For Democrats, contested races include U.S. Senate and county council at-large.

WHERE TO VOTE EARLY

Here is a look at when and where you can cast your ballot early. Early voting runs from April 9 to May 6:

Johnson County Courthouse, 5 E. Jefferson St., Franklin

» 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. April 9-12; April 15-19; April 22-26; April 29-May 3