A week before ballots are sent out for the June 25 Primary Election, the El Paso County Clerk and Recorder’s Office on Tuesday began testing its voting equipment.

Clerk and Recorder Steve Schleiker’s office started conducting the logic and accuracy test at 10 a.m. on all voting equipment that will be used in the upcoming primary election, including count scanners and ballot marking devices used at the county’s voter service and polling stations, according to a recent news release.

Clerks officials expect the test to take about two days to complete.

The logic and accuracy test is required by state law and is open to the public. It is being conducted in the Peterson Counting Room, 2202, on the second floor of the Citizens Service Center, 1675 Garden of the Gods Road .

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Three components make up the logic and accuracy test:

A system function test uses a pre-printed test deck with known results, to ensure a vote for every ballot choice is tested and placed in the correct “bucket” of results. This verifies county staff correctly programmed the election in the Election Management System.

A hardware function tests ensures all Election Management System hardware used in the election functions properly. For example, staff will power devices on and off, check that battery-powered devices hold a charge, and print from the ImageCastX ballot marking devices.

A final integrity check requires a party-balanced testing board to select a sample of at least 25 blank ballots to vote as they choose. The testing board then hand-tallies the ballots and checks them against the machine count after they are tabulated by scanner. The integrity check is as expansive as the testing board chooses to make it, according to the release.