SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Marji Stepp worked on elections back when they counted the results by hand.
That sometimes meant counting until 5 a.m. Sometimes people fell asleep, she said.
“This is No. 1,” Stepp said of the voting tabulation machine system. “It’s honest. The machine is accurate, 100%.”
Stepp is a member of the Minnehaha County election resolution board. She started working at 10 a.m. on Tuesday and will stay until all the votes are counted.
Stepp along with other resolution members make decisions on ballots that may have questions.
She sat at a table with one board member and two more members sat at a table next to them. The four people working at one time in the afternoon were divided into two from each main political party of Republican and Democrat, Stepp said.
“If the machine kicks back something that doesn’t go through…,” then, the members of the resolution review the ballot, Stepp said.
The machine may reject a ballot because a spot to vote for a candidate was completely filled or the voter may have circled a spot or candidate, Stepp said. Sometimes, a ballot is torn.
Resolution members review the ballot to determine the voter’s intent, she said. Then, they complete a duplicate ballot for the voter.
“It’s not just one person, somebody else is verifying too,” Stepp said. “There’s one Democrat and one Republican (reviewing) so there’s no cheating.”
Stepp said the public should feel comfortable about the voting tabulation process.
This is her fourth election as a member of the resolution board working with the voting tabulation machine.
