After a busy week training poll workers, Lauderdale County election commissioners on Monday turned their focus on readying the county’s ballot scanning machines in preparation for the Aug. 8 primary election.

Election Commission Chair Gloria Dancy said there were several tests to perform on the machines as part of the required logic and accuracy training. Commissioners needed to program the machines for the election, set the time and date and ensure each machine is counting ballots accurately.

“If somebody didn’t mark the whole ballot, the machine will say under voted. It will kick it back,” she said. “They can decide, ‘Do I want to cast like that or do I want to pull it out and redo it.’”

Dancy said commissioners would also be checking the machines with improperly marked ballots, such as a check next to a candidate’s name instead of a filled in oval. In that situation, she said, the voter would need to get a fresh ballot from a poll worker and try again.

“A poll voter can get three ballots,” she said. “If they get to that third ballot, they cannot get another. They have to cast it.”

The commission on Monday had 38 ballot scanning machines and 38 express voting machines to test. Express voting machines, Dancy said, are for voters with disabilities that prevent them from using a traditional paper ballot. The express machines allow those voters to print a custom ballot with their candidates already selected, which they can then feed into the ballot scanning machine.

“It’ll take it and read it just like the rest,” she said.

Logic and accuracy testing is a slow process, and Dancy said she expected the work to take most of the day Monday and possibly carry in to Tuesday. When complete, she said, the ballot scanners and express voting machines would be set up and ready for poll workers to open up on Election Day.

As part of poll worker training, which was held last week, election commissioners did their best to prepare the workers for any snags the machines may cause along the way. Dancy said the training covered how to open the machine and print a “zero report,” which shows zero votes are registered on the machine prior to polls opening. Poll workers also learned how to clear jammed ballots that can sometimes get hung up inside the scanners.

Election commissioners try to plan for every potential scenario, Dancy said, and a number of technology experts and elections officials will be on hand on Election Day to back up the poll workers, troubleshoot problems and make sure the elections run as smoothly as possible.

This year’s elections include many county, state and state-district positions such as transportation and public service commissioners, state senators and representatives and more.

Locally, the race for Lauderdale County sheriff, district 1 supervisor and coroner have attracted a lot of attention. At the state level, both Gov. Tate Reeves and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann are facing strong challengers as they run for another four-year term.

Voters in the primary will need to choose whether they want to receive a Republican or Democrat ballot when they arrive at their voting precinct. The winners of each party’s primary, as well as any independent or third party candidates, will move on to the general election in November.

If no candidate in a particular race receives more than 50% of the vote, a runoff election will be held on Aug. 29.