By vote of the people, Johnson County, Kansas has been a voting machine county since 1968, when lever machines were deployed to all voting locations. In 1988, our county became one of the first in the nation to deploy direct record electronic (DRE) voting machines.
In spring 2002, Johnson County was again one of the first counties in the nation to deploy touch screen voting machines to all voting locations. The Election Office has developed systematic procedures to assure the security and accountability of elections in Johnson County.
We comply with the United States Election Assistance Commission's Voting System Standards and all equipment used by Johnson County has been federally certified by the Election Assistance Commission and the State of Kansas.
From 2002 - 2017, Johnson County's voting machines were AccuVote-TSx touch screens and were used at advance voting locations and polling places. Votes were tabulated by the GEMS software of Premier Election Systems.
In 2018, the AccuVote-TSx touch screen machines and GEMS tabulation software was replaced with Election Systems and Software’s ExpressVote Tabulators and ElectionWare tabulation software.
Currently, all votes in Johnson County are cast using Election Systems and Software's ExpressVote ballot marking devices (BMD) and DS200 ballot scanner.
The public is always welcome to visit the Election Office for a hands-on demonstration of the voting machines. Just be sure to telephone (913) 715-6800 first to be sure that the demonstration equipment is not already reserved.
Internal Operations
The Johnson County Election Office is staffed by sworn election professionals who adhere to The Election Center's Code of Ethics, which was adopted by our office in 1997.
- The Election Office full-time staff manages all aspects of elections for residents of Johnson County.
- The staff is responsible for programming, verifying, tabulating, and conducting every election in Johnson County. This includes 19 cities, 7 townships, and 8 school district elections.
- The vendor does not program our elections and does not have remote access to our election software. We control our own elections.
Our office building, located at 2101 E. Kansas City Road in Olathe, has controlled access and is secured through an alarm system with electronic key card/password protected scramble pads at each entrance.
- Within the building there are numerous rooms with enhanced levels of controlled access.
- The election computer room is monitored by security cameras 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
- Key card scans by two authorized staff members are required for access.
Secondary Procedures
- The election software computer is freestanding. It is not networked within the office or connected to the Internet.
- Physically, the vendor's election software and each individual election database are secured on a computer that is not accessible by our office staff or the vendor's staff.
- This computer is installed in a secure room with controlled access. Key card scans by two authorized staff members are required for access. Office policy is that at least two people are in the room at any given time.
- A video camera also records all activity in this room.
- Individual election database files are backed up at designated milestones and secured in a locked cabinet within the secure room. After votes have been collected, the election database files are backed up daily and secured in an additional locked vault.
- All voting machine keys and storage media are secured in a controlled access room.
- Each machine is housed in a locked booth within our controlled access building; access to the power control and the election results port is controlled within a locked compartment.
- On Election Night, our election results sticks are hand-carried by election judges to election headquarters.
- Modems are not installed in any piece of vote marking or tabulating equipment in use in Johnson County. We do not use modems to transmit results.
Accountability of Election Setup, Operation and Tabulation
The Johnson County Election Office may use only voting systems, equipment and software certified through the Kansas Secretary of State's Office. The State requires that equipment be certified by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) Voting System Standards program.
A voting system must pass three levels of tests before it can be used in Kansas - Federal Qualification Tests, State Certification Tests, and local Acceptance Tests.
- Prior to every election our office conducts a Systems Diagnostic Test on each voting machine to ensure that it is operating properly. This test includes evaluation of the printer, USB reader, touch screen, power system and battery.
- Logic and Accuracy (L&A) Tests are performed on each election results stick. In addition, an L&A test is performed to test the integration of the voting machine data with the paper ballot system.
- This L&A test assures the accuracy of the entire process for every election - merging of paper ballots and machine votes to expected hand-calculated outcomes, including a review of all reports.
- Throughout the entire testing process there is an internal separation of duties and dual sign-off accountability on all processes.
- An extensive audit trail is maintained, including all proofing documentation.
- The Election Commissioner has final approval of all proofing and testing material.
- Election media for all tabulators are sealed inside each machine, and a record of each seal number is recorded.
- On Election Day, poll workers confirm the seal numbers on all voting machines and election media. This verification is signed by two sworn election workers.
Each polling place in our county is staffed by sworn election workers, who have attended a mandatory training session and a hands-on practice session before each election.
- The Supervising Judge is responsible for balancing voters processed to votes collected periodically throughout the day.
- There are numerous checks and balances in place, including separation of duties as each voter moves through the polling place.
- On Election Day the Supervising Judge maintains control of all machine keys.
- A beginning "zero proof" printout from each ballot scanner validates that there are no votes stored on the results sticks. This printout is signed by all sworn election workers.
- A ballot ticket and ballot card is issued to each voter at check-in. The election worker takes the ballot ticket and inserts the ballot card into the machine before it can be activated.
- Each voter is escorted to a voting machine by an election worker. The election worker validates from the ballot ticket that the correct ballot is displayed for the voter.
- The ballot ticket is deposited by the election worker into the pink ballot ticket bag, providing a paper audit trail for the number of votes collected in each voting machine. The voter receipt is comparable to a paper ballot stub.
- The voter will mark their ballot using the ballot marking device. When finished, they will print and review the ballot before scanning it through the ballot scanner near the exit.
- An end-of-day tally includes balancing voters processed to votes collected.
- A closing printout from each ballot scanner confirms the total number of votes collected in each machine. This printout is again signed by all sworn election workers.
The election results sticks, secured in a numbered, sealed pouch, are hand-carried by election judges to the Election Office, where the votes are tabulated.