Election judges at the El Paso County Clerk and Recorder were busy scanning 30,000 test ballots this past week, evaluating accuracy ahead of a forecasted record election turnout in November.

The effort, called a Logic and Accuracy Test, evaluates the county’s election management system to make sure each vote is counted correctly.

“This is a very critical time where we have to make sure everything is working,” said Steve Schleiker, El Paso County Clerk and Recorder.

The Colorado Secretary of State predetermined the results of the test election based on pre-printed ballots. The job of the El Paso County Clerk and Recorder, over a process that takes the office several days, was to come to the same numbers.

After starting Oct. 3, election judges wearing colored lanyards with their party affiliation were busy in a room at the clerk’s office running ballots through tabulation. They continued through early this week.

The process could be viewed from the hallway outside the office through glass tinted with bullet-resistant film.

The Logic and Accuracy Test also includes a comprehensive check of all the machines involved in the vote-counting process. After that, election judges will fill out 25 ballots each to run through the system and compare to a hand count.

Schleiker said that the test is the first in several audits that will occur in the lead-up to November 5. The tabulation machines under scrutiny in the test are new, first used in the 2023 coordinated election. Schleiker said that the machines, without a connection to the internet, are not hackable.

He said his office was addressing other concerns about potential voter fraud through publicly-available live streams of ballot boxes. He said his office also has a dedicated investigator for potential fraud on the mail-in ballot level.

“All this stuff is just as transparent as possible,” said Schleiker.