SAN ANTONIO – The Bexar County Elections Office is gearing up for what could be a record-breaking voter turnout this fall by performing their annual maintenance check on all the voting machines.
"We call in 'PMI,' Preventative Maintenance Implementation, that is what they are doing," said Jacquelyn Callanen, Bexar County elections administrator.
The county has an outside company do the main work on the machines. It checks the screens all the way down to the legs that hold up the free-standing pieces of equipment.
"We just go through and check all the components of the machine making sure it is in good working order all the way down to the booth itself," said Bill McCullough, with Election Systems and Software.
There are 2,843 machines that will be looked over.
"We are trying to make them function the best they can, just like they were new," McCullough said.
"It is really quite an operation," Callanen said.
Over the 13 years the machines have been in service, they have been used in 367 elections. Over the last 18 months, there have been 14 elections.
In order to maintain integrity throughout the process, all the workers who touch the machines have been bonded and have had background checks.
The company employees do the work and then hand the machines over the county elections officials for a final review.
"They are taking them back down to the base. There is nothing on these machines when these people are working on them," Callanen said.
The utmost care in storing the machines during the operation of the voting process is to make sure there are not any discrepancies in vote count, such as an outside force being able to hack the machines.
"They are stand alone. It is not connected. There is no internet. It is not computerized," Callanen said
All the information on the machines is encrypted. Callanen has a proven record when it comes to protecting the voting process in Bexar County.
“(I) haven't lost a vote in 13 years," she said.