It's Election Day in Arkansas. Across the state, election officials will be certifying results and counting votes well into the evening.
Amanda Dickens is demonstrating how Arkansas’ voting machines work. But instead of the screen asking what candidate you want to be president, it's asking if you prefer vanilla, chocolate or strawberry ice cream.
“If I had to pick right now, I would probably do vanilla,” she said. “With a little chocolate syrup on top. I know that wasn't an option though.”
Dickens is the Election Coordinator for Pulaski County. This demonstration happened months ago, before the machines were used for early voting. The commission chose to populate the machines with something non-controversial just for practice.
Pulaski County uses paper ballots on the actual Election Day and these machines on the days leading up to the election. Both paper and machine votes are counted on a giant election tabulator.
Dickens says these vote counting machines have hard drives that are virtually impossible to hack into.
“Because it will only accept the encrypted thumb drive from the software company,” she said. “And the thumb drive has a key. So every election there is a new election key placed on the thumb drive.”
The ballots were designed back in August, when counties across the state held public ballot draws to decide what order candidates would appear on the ballot. In Pulaski County, candidates selected numbers from a bingo wheel. In Washington County, they drew numbers from slips of paper.
Candidates in Saline County drew numbers from a tin can.
Saline County Clerk Doug Curtis says ballot design doesn't have any artistic component behind it. They just put the names in the order they were drawn.
At this ballot draw, many candidates were there representing themselves. The room is crowded with candidates for state and local offices. Curtis chose this moment to give a speech.
“This is the political season,” he said. “We’re all neighbors, we're all friends, we all live in Saline County, the best county in the state to live. Let's keep it that way through the election.”
For presidential candidates, random people from the crowd volunteered to pull numbers, since no campaign representatives attended the ballot draw.
Former civics teacher Tamme Adams drew fourth place for Vice President Kamala Harris. Adams also serves as the lone Democrat on the Saline County Election Commission. She said she hasn't seen a shortage of poll workers in her county the way there is across the country.
“We have some people that have done it for years,” she said. “As a retired teacher, several of them are retired teachers and we all know each other. We go to church together.”
Adams said the votes are kept safe all through the detailed process of counting them and handing them over to the Secretary of State's Office.
“Voting machines do not have a modem,” she said. “They are not connected to the internet. Tabulators are machines, they are not computers.”
In the weeks before the election, commissioners carry around checklists making sure they adhere to every state election law they have to follow. There are pages of rules.
Before the election, both the manufacturer and the secretary of state have to check the machines for quality control.
Counties have to provide public instruction in public buildings on the machines to anyone who wants it. They do public “logic and accuracy testing” seven days out and five days out. They do a test the day of to make sure there are zero votes in the machine. The commissioners have to audit the voting system and send a copy to the secretary of state and the county clerk.
And that's just some of the rules they have to follow.
Dickens of Pulaski County said she is not worried about anything going wrong on election day.
“I know there is a lot of anxiety about the election,” she said. “But we do everything so by the book that it's not even funny.
When you go to vote, your name will get checked off an electronic poll book making it impossible for you to vote twice.
If you are blind, you can have the machine read the ballot to you. There are other accommodations for voters who are paralyzed.
The election isn't over until everyone in line has gotten the chance to vote.
Then, color-changing tape is removed from the tabulators and the machines are unlocked with a key.
The night of the election, clerks work late to create an unofficial vote count. This is the count before provisional ballots or overseas ballots come in.
The results are transmitted to the Secretary of State's Office, with several checks along the way to make sure all the processes are being followed.
“So that thumb drive will get secured in that secured silk bag,” she said. “It will get checked at area headquarters and then checked again once it gets here. And then we’ll read it in.”
Dickens says after the election, the counties keep the ballots in case they are needed for a dispute or an audit.
“We secure the ballots for two years,” she said. “Then after that we can destroy them. We have a warehouse that stores all our voting machines”
Polls are open Tuesday, from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. In Arkansas, you have to bring some kind of ID with you to vote.
