Sorry there is no time for introductions everyone. Maybe after were done. Said Michael as he followed Miguel down the hallway.
The stunned and jittery group followed close at hand. Totally confused after the reception they had just received. By the time they reached the door to storage however, Jen and Francine had regained their composure. As they stepped through the door they zeroed in on a worktable in the center of the room. John surrounded by the voting equipment immediately fell into his computing mode and began searching the stacks for random terminals. The seriousness that overtook John, Jen and Francine permeated the group. Juan and the new security guard took up positions close to the entrance. Antonio and Peter set up the video cameras and began recording as Jen and Francine pulled out their computers and printouts. They placed the print outs on the table in three neat rows. Arlene, Mark and Helen each took a place in front of a stack and sat down on the chairs provided by Miguel.
Michael had followed John into the stacks and returned with one of the machines. He placed it before Francine, who immediately did a inspection. When she approved it she set it up in front of Helen and began her process of programming the machine. A similar machine followed soon after and a similar process was begun. Shortly John and Michael arrived with a third machine and it too was inspected and programmed. Jen meanwhile had found the key coders.
Each machine has been programmed with a basic voting program. There is only one race. One man is a Democrat and one is a Republican. While you watch we will do vote verification such as is done by the Supervisor of Elections. This is done to insure that if I press a vote for one man it is registered as his vote. The results will be shown on my laptop so you can see the results. Said Francine.
At this point Jen stepped forward and began the process of vote verification on each machine.
We are letting Jen do the vote verification so that neither one of you can be accused of manipulating the final vote tallies. Said Francine.
As Jen finished the vote verification the votes were recorded on the laptop Francine had provided. Antonio and Peter recorded every step and focused the hand held camera on the results.
I will ask each of you if the results in the verification process were correct. Said Francine.
Helen, Arlene and Mark all confirmed the verification process.
Good. We will begin the voting after we have followed SOE directions and manufacturer directions to zero out the voter verification. Said Francine.
John was handed the key coders. He swiped each card through the coder and held onto them until Francine indicated they were ready.
Ok thirty five minutes have passed so we have to do this quickly. But you must do it accurately. Jen has placed before you a piece of paper face down. I have never seen them. It is a listing of the each vote you must place in the machine. John will give you a card. When you have received it, turn the paper over and begin voting. Peter will walk behind you to record your votes. Jen will monitor you. I will stay in front of you, unable to see how your votes are placed. John will re-code each card after each vote. If youre ready, lets begin.
Helen, Arlene and Mark nodded their heads in agreement. John walked forward and handed each a card. They turned over the paper, inserted their cards and began voting. Nothing could be heard, but the chunking of the cards being slid in and spit out as they each concentrated on the task before them. Each vote was recorded and John worked feverishly re-coding each card as it came back out of the machine. The click, click of the cards pushing in and out, the checking off of each vote became a rhythm. The room formerly chilled seemed to get hot. Mark slowed down some to concentrate on his vote when he reached fifty. Arlene and Helen slowed down a little around sixty votes. As they worked through the list it became harder and harder to make sure they kept up with the proper voting sequence. The room became nothing but concentration and voting. It was a test, a test of the most important kind.
Finally Mark placed his last vote and wiped his brow, Helen and Arlene had finished just ahead of Mark and sat back in their chairs. Jen took each paper holding the vote log and stepped away from the machines. Francine moved to the front of the machines.
Im going to print a total of the votes as prescribed by the manufacturer without zeroing out the totals. Just as we would if we need a recount or some other problem existed which would require the totals being printed more than once. Said Francine.
Francine moved to the machine and hit a few buttons. A slip of paper emerged from the machine and listed the vote totals for each machine. She handed them to Jen one at a time to match and compare with the log of votes for each machine. Jen laid the logs down on the table for all to see and placed the machine total slips next to each log. Peter recorded all the results on his camera.
The first machine recorded 55 votes for the Democrat and 45 votes for the Republican. The log for that machine..
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