LWV Observes the Post-election Equipment Review

When the voting is over, the focus of the election managers then shifts to verification.  The Post-election Equipment Review is where random precincts in each county are chosen for a hand-count of the races for President, US Senator and US House.  The counting In Anoka County, eight precincts were selected for this review.

In the Post-Election Equipment Review (PER), trained election judges of balanced party affiliation hand count three races in a representative number of precincts to verify that the machines got it right.  These reviews happen in every county in Minnesota between the election and the State Canvassing Board meeting.  LWV ABC members observed the PER in Anoka County and Sherburne County on November 18 and 19, respectively.  Precincts are chosen at random during the County Canvassing Board meeting.  Eight precincts were reviewed in Anoka County and three in Sherburne.  

LWV MN sent a team of observers to watch Anoka County's PER.  ABC member Jody Anderson was a member of this team, and provided this photo.  The PER was done in the Atrium of the county courthouse.  Observers were able to watch all the proceedings but did not talk with the election judges or county staff as they worked.  Rita Mills from LWV Roseville was another observer, and Rita put together a step-by-step diary of what happened at the review; this is included at the bottom of this post.  

At the start of the PER, county election staff bring the boxes of ballots to each table.  The judges inspect the seals that were placed on the boxes on election night and then open them.  The ballot are separated into piles by candidate voted for, and then each pile is counted and recounted by judges of different parties.  

After each race is counted, the reported results are compared to the machine counts from election day.  If there is a discrepancy, the hand counts are checked.  Common discrepancies occur in the "Write-in" and "No Vote" areas.  If the voter has written in a name for a race but didn't fill in the oval for "Write-in", the voting machine counts this as a "No Vote".  But when the human counters find this, they move it from the no-vote column to the write-in column, resulting in changes in each of these categories.  In Anoka County there were no discrepancies found by the end of the process.  

State law requires each county to conduct a PER.  LWV MN sent observers to more than 40 of Minnesota's 87 counties, providing a very visible presence at the reviews.  You can read more about this work on the LWV MN website here.   LWV MN President Gretchen Sabel was part of the team who observed at Sherburne County.

Louise Winter (LWV St Louis Park), Dorothy Doyle (LWV St Louis Park), Cathy Mahal (LWV Bloomington) and Gretchen Sabel (LWV ABC)

In Sherburne County, Gretchen Sabel observed as part of a team of four with League members from Bloomington and St. Louis Park.  The review took about six hours.  It was very orderly and respectful.  Gretchen reports that as the day went on, the human counters had problems and had to spend time trying to find their errors.  The machines don't get tired.
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And here is Rita Mill's diary of events at the Anoka County PER

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