Starke County Election Board Continues Discussing Secure Storage Options for Voting Machines

Posted on October 26, 2018
Author Michael Gallenberger, WKVI

Steps are being taken to secure Starke County’s voting machines. Clerk Vicki Cooley told the rest of the election board Wednesday that plans are in the works to build a state-compliant secure storage room, within an existing storage area.

But first, Cooley wants to talk with a MicroVote representative who has worked with other counties on voting machine storage. “So I thought if we could get him back to know what kind and how large the shelving is going to be, we would have a better estimate of how big that room should be, then,” she said, “because I wouldn’t want it any bigger than what we have to have.”

With the construction of the secure room still likely a few months off, Cooley said the county’s maintenance staff has installed a locking door, to limit access to the larger storage area. But she didn’t think that temporary arrangement would meet the state’s requirement for the long-term, since Clerk’s Office and court staff regularly need access to the area. “We have to unlock it in order to go to the files,” she explained. “The court has to unlock it to go to the files or even to the restroom. So that isn’t feasible.” Cooley said there are plans to move some of the files out of that particular storage area, but some criminal records will remain there. She said the area is not usually accessed by the public for searches.

Board member Peg Brettin suggested seeing whether the county could get a waiver to keep the voting machine storage as it currently is, on the condition that only Clerk’s Office and court staff have access to the area.

Starke County Working to Increase Voting Machine Storage Security

Posted on December 12, 2017
Author Michael Gallenberger, WKVI

The Starke County Election Board is taking steps to keep voters’ ballots secure. New regulations now require that voting machines be locked up when they aren’t in use, to prevent tampering.

Starke County’s maintenance staff has recommended securing the machines by placing a wooden beam in front of their current storage space. They say that will prevent anyone from pulling them out without having a key. Last week, the election board authorized maintenance staff to draw up a plan, so the Clerk’s Office can make sure the arrangement would comply with the new rules.

The voting machines do not connect to the Internet, so the biggest concern has to do with their physical security. On top of that, the machines’ design makes them difficult to hack into, according to MicroVote representative Steve Shamo. “The reality of it is, there’s no USB port on it,” he told the election board.

“No USB, no wireless,” added Starke County IT Director Mark Gourley. “You’d have to have one of the specialized cards to get into it, and that’s even if you had managed to figure out the bit format on that card to make modifications, assuming you got past the election judge at the polling place.”

The election board has also agreed to pursue upgrades to the voting machines themselves, to bring them up to the latest federal standards.