GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — The city of Green Bay held public testing of its voting machines Tuesday morning, a week before the primary. The Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) says this is to ensure accuracy and bring transparency to the process.
In a statement to news media, the WEC said all municipalities are required to conduct a public test of their electronic voting equipment not earlier than 10 days before each election. Programming is verified by feeding a set of pre-marked ballots into each machine and reviewing the results tape that is generated. An errorless count is required at the conclusion of the testing.
The WEC cites Wisconsin law which states any anomalies identified in testing must be remedied before the equipment can be used in an election.
According to the WEC, following the public test, the voting equipment and memory devices are required to be secured. The memory device must remain in the equipment with a tamper-evident seal used to secure memory device compartments. A chain-of-custody log is required to be maintained that documents any access to each memory device or tabulator.
The next statewide election is on August 9.
