Elections are secure, Elkhart County Clerk assures voters

 

It's video you've probably seen several times by now. St. Joseph County Clerk and registered Democrat Rita Glenn entering the absentee ballot room by herself the day before the 2022 primary election in May.

After leaving the room, she's then seen throwing away what looks like rolls of paper.

Republicans are upset because a Democrat was allowed to enter the room by herself, Democrats are upset because a scheduling conflict prevented the Republican from joining Glenn.

Fast forward to the general election a lawsuit has been filed, and St. Joseph County election security is now under more scrutiny.

I wanted to learn how the county plans on preventing something like this from happening again.

St. Joseph County Clerk Rita Glenn denied a request for an interview because of "a target on her back."

But Elkhart County Clerk Christopher Anderson says voters should still be confident in the system.

"After the election we also conduct an audit," said Christopher.

Christopher tells me the early voting ballots are secured by tamper proof seals which are numbered and barcoded.

The tablets which print out the paper ballot also keep the tally internally.

The printed ballots are collected by a bi-partisan team and secured in a bag with another tamper proof seal.

"It gets locked up here in the courthouse, we have a vault in the courthouse where it gets locked in," Christopher said.

And if you are worried about attacks from afar Christopher says that's not likely either.

"None of our, the election equipment in of itself, has ever touched the internet," Christopher said.

The voting machines are tested publicly in September to ensure that everything is working properly

And the results of the test, were perfect.

He is confident that on election day voters will be able to cast their vote in a safe and secure environment.

One last concern voters have is voter intimidation.

Christopher says poll workers are trained to deal with that too.

"If they then feel it's still outside of their realm of what they can handle, it’s a call to 911," Christopher said.