Athens Reporter

The Athens-Clarke County Elections Department will conduct a logic and accuracy test on all voting equipment for the upcoming November 5, 2024, General Election.

The testing will begin on Monday, September 23, 2024, at 10:00 AM at the Athens-Clarke County Facilities and Landscape Management Building at 2555 Lexington Road, Athens, Georgia, 30605. It will continue until all units have been tested and proven accurate. Testing will run from 9:00 AM each subsequent day until completion.

Political parties/bodies, news media, and the public are invited to view the logic and accuracy testing.

The State of Georgia requires logic and accuracy testing through specific procedures before every election. As part of the process, the Athens-Clarke County Elections Department staff will run tests on the paper-based voting units, the check-in system, and the optical scan system for recording absentee ballots.

The first part of the process involves receiving the secure election database from the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office for the upcoming election. The system uses this database to create memory cards for the voting equipment, program the voting equipment, and produce ballots and reports.

Once the memory cards for the voting system are created, the logic and accuracy procedures test the proper creation of voter access cards, display of ballots on screens, printing of paper ballots, scanning paper ballots, vote collection, and tabulation results. During this process, units are calibrated, physically inspected, and recorded.

All races, headers, race titles, candidates' names, and placement orders of candidates are visually checked on touch-screen units. Testing is performed using voter access cards. Ballots are also checked to confirm proper audio and magnification assistance features.

After a machine is tested and proven accurate it is sealed and stored in a secure building until Election Day. Access to this building is tightly controlled. The Athens-Clarke County Elections Department follows all state laws according to the Official Code of Georgia and State Election Board rules concerning testing and storing voting equipment.

Athens-Clarke County voters will vote in the General Election on November 5, 2024.

For more information contact the Athens-Clarke County Elections Department at 706-613-3150 or visit www.accgov.com/elections.

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