COVINGTON, Ky. — The Kenton County Board of Elections voted Monday morning to allow the public and news organizations to view the internal mechanisms of the voting machines the county will use in the 2024 at a special demonstration early next year.
The board set a preliminary date and time for the event as Saturday, Feb. 24 at 10 a.m., the exact time of which may change in the coming months depending on the board members’ schedules.
Gabrielle Summe, the chair of the board of elections and the county clerk, proposed the idea as a means of allaying worries about election fraud. Republican Representative Board Member Scott Kimmich stated that he would like to invite the county’s mayors to attend the event as well in case they had questions.
“I don’t know if we’ll change people’s minds, but I would rather be real open about how the equipment functions and what’s inside,” Summe said at the meeting.
In October, the board voted to disallow the use of portable WiFi detectors at polling places for fear the devices could be used to pilfer voters’ data or otherwise interfere with polling security.
Voting machine vendors vary from county to county, but each vendor must pass strict federal and state guidelines before they can be used. Per Kentucky statue, all voting machines in the commonwealth are air-gapped, meaning they lack the technology for internet connectivity. The only three vendors certified in Kentucky are Hart InterCivic, Election Systems & Software and MicroVote. Kenton County uses Electronic Systems & Software machines, the marketing materials of which state they’re never connected to the internet.
The next Kenton County Board of Elections meeting will take place on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024 at 8 a.m.
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