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00000179-cdc6-d978-adfd-cfc6d7d40002Coverage of the issues, races and people shaping Kansas elections in 2016, including statewide coverage in partnership with KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, and High Plains Public Radio.

Sedgwick County Official Has 'Absolute Confidence' In Voting Equipment

Jim McLean, File Photo
/
KHI News Service

Sedgwick County’s Election Commissioner is issuing a vote of confidence in the equipment that will be used in local elections.

Tabitha Lehman told the Sedgwick County Commission Wednesday that every piece of voting equipment that is used in the county gets inspected and tested prior to Election Day. She says they test the machines and software to make sure the choices on the ballot are accurate.

"We have never had it malfunction," Lehman told commissioners. "We have had it come out differently, but when we go back and look at it, it's because it was human error putting it in incorrectly, not because it counted it incorrectly."

Lehman says the machines are not connected to the internet, so there’s no chance of outside tampering.

She expects 80 percent of registered voters to cast ballots in this election, so her office is renting 55 additional touchscreen machines to help offset the high turnout.

The election office will hold a public demonstration and verification of voting equipment on Friday, Nov. 4, at 10 a.m.

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Follow Deborah Shaar on Twitter @deborahshaar.

To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.

Deborah joined the news team at KMUW in September 2014 as a news reporter. She spent more than a dozen years working in news at both public and commercial radio and television stations in Ohio, West Virginia and Detroit, Michigan. Before relocating to Wichita in 2013, Deborah taught news and broadcasting classes at Tarrant County College in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area.