Kristine Runck, a Milford Township clerk and head election judge, runs a test on the ballot tabulator during Brown County’s Public Accuracy Test (PAT) Friday. Runck holds up an example of cross-party ballot. During a primary, voters cannot vote for both political parties. She is testing to make sure the tabulator will flag the cross-party ballot. Photo by Clay Schuldt

NEW ULM – Brown County staff conducted a Public Accuracy Test (PAT) of its electronic voting equipment Friday.

State statute requires all Minnesota counties and municipalities that are conducting elections to administer PATs at least three days before it is used. The test must be open to all members of the public and observed by at least two election judges from different political parties.

“The test is to make sure the machines can tabulate the ballot ahead of the State Primary,” Brown County Auditor-Treasurer Kelly Hotovec said.

The PAT test run on Friday was actually the second test of the equipment. A preliminary test of all election equipment was held earlier. During preliminary testing, ballots are marked using the assistive voting device, a set of pre-marked ballots is fed into the ballot tabulators, and the machine totals are compared with predetermined results. If an error is detected during any part of the testing process, the issue is corrected and an error-free count must be achieved before the equipment can be approved for use.

The PAT is used demonstrate to the public the accuracy of the voting system that will be used in the election. This test is required to verify that the tabulation equipment accurately counts votes cast for every candidate on the ballot.

Minnesota law requires that a minimum of three precincts be tested, ensuring that at least one precinct representing each congressional district, legislative district, county, city ward, township, and school district appearing on the ballot is included. The selected precincts must also be tested using each unique model of voting equipment that will be used during the election.

The precincts of Burnstown, Eden, Leavenworth, Milford, North Star and Springfield were selected for the Public Accuracy Testing.

The PAT also includes a test of the OmniBallot equipment. The OmniBallot is an assisted voting device designed to help individuals with hearing or visual disabilities to vote. The device had a computer screen and headphones that help voters mark their ballots.

Gunny Coulson, an election staffer for Brown County, tested the OmniBallot and found it to be in working order. He said the equipment was simple to use and marked the test ballots correctly.

Hotovec said even though the OmniBallot was designed for people with disabilities, anyone can request to use it.

She said one benefit of using an OmniBallot machine during a primary election is the device will not let a person cross-party vote.

A cross-party voting is when a primary ballot is filled out for candidates in both parties. In a primary election, voters are only allowed to vote for a single party. If a vote is submitted with candidates in both parties marked, the voting equipment will reject the cross-vote ballots.

As part of the PAT, some ballots with intentional errors were included in the test deck to determine if the equipment could catch it. This included a cross-voting ballot, a ballot with too many candidates marked and ballots with incorrect tracking marks.

In each case, the equipment was able to catch the irregularity and prevent the ballot from being counted.

Kristine Runck, a Milford Township clerk and head election judge, performed the tests on the Milford equipment.

She said the test was important to show voters everything was being done above board.

Brown County’s Public Accuracy Test was completed successfully with an errorless count, confirming that all voting equipment tested is functioning accurately and is ready for use in the upcoming August 11th State Primary Election.