We went to the Summit County clerk’s logic and accuracy testing of the voting machines and process for the 2026 general election. This was the second test the office has conducted, and by statute they are required to announce the test to the public for transparency. No other observers from the p ublic were present. We were very impressed by the security and integrity of the process. Some highlights: The room in which the ballots are stored and the machines are located has no wifi access, and none of the machines in the room are connected to the inter- or intranet. The room is only accessible if opened with two card keys at the same time, and nothing is handled unless there are at least two trained employees present. This is also true for collecting ballots from ballot boxes or from the Coalville Post Office. Only red pens are permitted to be used in the room to eliminate the possibility of a ballot accidentally being marked with a blue or black pen. The machine used to tabulate the ballots, both mail-in and from voting machines, is fondly called Peaches and is an ESS DS450. There is also a smaller machine in case there is a failure with Peaches. For the test we observed (Test X) the vendor sent 1,771 filled out ballots that reflected all possible permutations based on the 79 distinct ballots in the county, most in mail-in ballot form and also some in-person ballot forms.  The ballots were run through Peaches in batches of 25. For each batch, if there were adjudicated ballots that require a human eye because of stains or tears or other issues, those are separated so that two people can look at the ballot and determine the voter’s intent.  Once all of the ballots are read, a report is printed on Peaches, which requires a special code to be entered. The results are compared to the expected results provided by the vendor to verify the machine tallied the votes correctly (there is a process run before the ballots are processed to make sure the machine starts from zero). The results from Peaches matched the expected results provided by the vendor. After the test run on Peaches, a special thumb drive was inserted into the machine into a special opening that can only be opened with the key. The thumb drive is encrypted so it can only be read by the computers in the room. The thumb drive from Peaches was inserted into a computer that is also not connected to anything else. The numbers were loaded there and again the report generated was compared to the master from the vendor. There is a final step, where the results from that computer are loaded into a laptop via a thumb drive. Once that laptop is also verified, it is sealed and removed from the building so that if a catastrophe were to strike there would be a record of the election off-site.   In all, a report was run and results compared to the expected results provided by the ballot vendor four times: (1) after all ballots are run on Peaches, (2) after the data is transferred to the desktop, (3) after data is transferred to the laptop, (4) on the backup machine. We learned some interesting additional information:  Most ballots submitted are mail-in ballots; the early voting locations are sparsely used; 500-1,000 in-person voters are anticipated to vote in-person on election day  The ballot drop box at the Richins is the most used, with those at Jeremy Ranch, the Market at Park City and the Park City Library being the next most used locations.  Ballot drop boxes are always emptied by two people, never one.  The bag that carries the ballots is immediately sealed and locked with a special tab. In Utah, no early voting results or counts are published.  Results are only published once every single voting location in the state has closed. Initial results are submitted to the state on Election Day. A significant number of Summit County voters vote by absentee ballot.  In the last election it was around 500.  To vote by absentee ballot, a voter must complete a fillable PDF form (available on the Summit County website) and sign it either on paper or on a screen (no Docusign).  They then submit that form to the clerk’s office who will reply with instructions for secure online voting. Observing the security and redundancy built into our voting system in Summit County inspires deep trust. We were impressed by the integrity of the system and the employees of the Summit County Clerk’s Office. We sincerely hope that all eligible voters will make sure to register if they haven’t yet (Oct. 23 is the deadline if one wants to receive a ballot by mail, and one can vote until election day by registering on site or at the Clerk’s Office and casting a provisional ballot) and vote! This is our greatest power as the citizens of a democratic country.  Riki Case, Deena Mitchell Park City The post Impressed with test appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less