Town Tabulators Tested

Above, Nancy Danello (at left with back to camera) and Dyan Fitzgerald at the right, began the process of tabulator testing with Election Wardens and volunteers on Wednesday.

An election ritual in Franklin and other communities that use automated ballot tabulating machines, is bringing them "out of the closet" and testing them to make sure they process ballots properly.

That was the task in mind when Town Clerk Nancy Danello and a team of helpers set up the machines in the Council Chamber of the municipal building on Wednesday morning and commenced to run batches of Republican and Democrat primary ballots through them. The activity, open to the public, attracted a handful of spectators -- some with questions about the process and about voting security in general.

Danello and Dyan Fitzgerald, Deputy Town Clerk, did their best to provide answers while simultaneously supervising a group of town Election Wardens and other volunteers. 

The town now has nine voting machines, corresponding to the nine town precincts (up from eight prior to the most recent census) as well as a spare. Each machine went through the same laborious manual process to ensure there are no glitches for the election.