SUNY Oswego student learns where his ballot goes
OSWEGO, N.Y. – Students at SUNY Oswego have been wondering what happens to your ballot once you mail it in or fill it out in person. The question is, where does it go? Luckily the Oswego County Board of Elections takes extensive care to make sure each and every vote is properly accounted for. Oswego’s Zachary Greenspan asked the board directly to gather more information.
We learned that once you fill out your ballot it goes into a machine. It scans your ballet and then goes onto a USB stick. They then take the physical ballet and the USB stick back to the board of elections to be accounted for. The machines are tested for errors over three times to ensure your vote is counted.
The US Postal Service ensures that your ballot will get to and from its designated location safely. They are shipped by US Postal Service USPS.
We also asked an experienced voter Chris Nash if there were any questions they had about the process.
“This year I decided to mail in my vote early, is it treated any differently than if I submitted it in person,” Chris Nash said.
The answer he received from the board is that ultimately your votes all end up in the same place. Separate scanners are used for voting by mail ballots. They open these ballets within 4 days, and separate them from their envelopes. At 9:00 pm on election night, results are uploaded. These are the mail in votes early voting results.
Lastly, as an additional step to maintain the security of all the votes, every time batches of results are uploaded to the USB drive, they are erased right after making room for the next set of results.
