The following rules and procedures were presented by Forrest Lehman, director of Voter Services, in a PowerPoint presentation to the Board of Elections in reference to the upcoming hand count of 59,481 ballots cast in the November 2020 election.

The goals of the count, as outlined by Lehman is to hand count the ballots cast in the presidential and Auditor General races in 2020 in order to demonstrate that the “electronic voting system counts ballots accurately” and that the outcome in the county was correct.

Rules for the hand recount of two races in the 2020 Presidential Election were approved at the last Board of Elections meeting this month. They included such things as the time involved to do the recount — Jan. 9 through 31 — and that there is not photography or outside writing implements.

The director of administration, Matt McDermott, and Lehman will be the initial on-site supervisors, as well as any additional supervisors that may be appointed. There will be one observer per local party committee and media organizations that will be permitted. The authorized observers can direct questions to the supervisors, but they cannot engage with the canvassers or interfere in any way with the canvassers or the operations.

Additional rules can be made to ensure the safeguarding of the ballots and to ensure a smooth and orderly operation.

The on-site supervisors direct the actions of the canvassers and operations can be temporarily suspended if there is a need in the event of a legal procedure or staffing issue. The operation may also be temporarily suspended if it is not completed in time.

Procedures outlined by Lehman include:

• The ballots will be broken down into election day, mail and provisional ballots and organized into 183 batches, reflecting how they were counted on election day.

• The canvassers will identify and review marginal marks on ballots. An example of this is when someone puts an x right along the edge of an oval on the ballot, but it’s not clear which candidate they had selected. Lehman provided several examples of what qualifies as a marginal mark on a ballot.

• Ballot organization and chain of custody are very important as the ballots are federal election records and still in the county’s custody.

• The canvassing team will need to identify a batch and sign it out prior to canvassing. The sign out requires a signature with the date and time of removal. There will be a similar procedure when they sign them back in when they’re done.

• Canvassing teams consist of two people. One will read the votes on the ballots and the other will record each vote on a tally sheet.

• The tally sheets can accommodate up to 50 marks per choice. Canvassers will make a mark on the sheet for every ballot. There’s a row for each choice that was available for president. There’s a row for write-in votes, for over-votes and no votes. Each box can hold five marks and when they get up to 50 they would close out the tally sheet and start a new one with new ballots. Totals from tally sheets are carried over to a batch total sheet.

• The completed batch total sheet and the underlying tally sheets get turned over to the on-site supervisor who will check that the numbers have been correctly carried over.

Lehman noted that it is not necessary for the hand count results to match the voting system totally in order to demonstrate the accuracy of the voting system and the correctness of the outcome.

“However, our goal is to be as accurate as possible,” he said.