What Happens to Your Ballot After You Vote

Have you ever wondered what happens to your ballot after you drop it in the ballot box?  There are many steps to ensure the safety and integrity of the ballot transportation and counting process.

What makes an election successful? If you ask Bob Litz, Minnehaha County Auditor, a successful election could mean everything went off without incident. The School Board Election on April 14, 2015 could easily have been called a success.

During the previous General Election in November 2014, two brand new vote tabulating machines purchased for $108,000 each were anything but streamlined. Many ballots were kicked back and needed to be handled manually, dragging out the vote counting process for many hours. Certainly the intentions for everyone at the County Auditors office were well meaning by arranging for the new machines, but all the headaches were not anticipated.

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It must have been a sense of relief and resolution for Litz and the staff to see the constant whirring of the machines, which digitize every ballot as they fly by. The only minor hiccup I saw was one folded ballot, which the machine caught and put the process on hold.  Minutes later the tabulator was up and running again.

Shortly after 7:30 PM, the anticipation was building as the staff, volunteers and local boy scouts awaited the first ballot boxes. Litz was professional and welcoming in the tabulation rooms as the ballot box seals were broken, loaded into a jogger machine to neaten up the stack of ballots and be loaded into the tabulation machine. Although numerous tests had shown the machines should work, it appeared there was a cautious optimism. With every successful processing of another ballot box, the apprehension seemed to lift in the room.

By the time the last ballots were delivered, Litz gave the delivery woman a hug.  A smile seemed to grace the face of Bob Litz as the night progressed. I'm sure it was a great experience to move on from the problems of the previous election tabulation, and embrace the successful processing of the School Board Election.