The Putnam County Election Commission completed the certification and sealing of voting equipment Wednesday, part of security for the August election.
Administrator of Elections Jennifer Murphy said the certification process requires commissioners to personally inspect and confirm that every machine is sealed before being deployed to polling sites. Murphy said machine technicians perform preliminary tests on the equipment and verify the integrity of the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail printers located inside each unit.
“As far as the machines, after we certify and make sure that they’re locked up in the vault,” Murphy said, “We are ensuring that the seal numbers and all of those numbers are going out to the precinct are correct.”
Murphy said the commission maintains a strict chain of custody on the machines. Murphy said they commission is as prepared as they can be for voters at this stage.
“Well, when we do our testing on the machines, our machine technicians come in and they will actually go through every single machine, including early voting,” Murphy said. “They test every single button, they make sure every button that they push, there’s a mark next to that candidate’s name. They make sure the machines are zeroed out before being sealed for election day and then we also will do the seal numbers again for that.”
Chairman Michael Detwiler said the commission considers the availability of election workers when determining the hours of operation for local precincts. Detwiler said while some Tennessee counties open at 7am, Putnam County operates from 9am to 7pm to allow staff time to complete necessary morning preparations.
“There’s a lot of preparation from election worker for election workers to do before we open the doors for people to vote and so it’s a long day,” Detwiler said. “And sometimes I guess where people see the Nashville news, they’ll see the seven to seven and they’re confused and they’ll show up at seven o’clock in the morning at a precinct and of course we’re not open yet.”
Detwiler said there are no changes to voting locations for the upcoming elections, though voters should expect longer lines than those seen during the May primary. Detwiler said state law requires all voters to present a photo ID at the polls.
“I would encourage folks to early vote and also expect longer lines than in the May election,” Detwiler said. “So, I would encourage folks to go to the Putnam County Election Commission website. We have sample ballots there. We have a lot of information.”
Detwiler said residents can use the GoVoteTN app to locate their specific election day precincts.
