Douglas County Election Commissioner Brian Kruse did a final test Monday on the nine machines that will count votes from Tuesday’s mid-term election.
Kruse says they are seeing all-time highs in the number of early voters, but thousands of voters are still expected to turn out at the polls November 6th.
That means the machines need to be in prime working order. Kruse says the machinery had been tested repeatedly prior to Monday's final checks.
As of Monday, Kruse said more than 79,000 ballots had been handed out and more than 60,000 had been returned, "and by state law or state statute we can count those early voting ballots today."
Those are historic numbers. He said in the last mid-term they gave out approximately 39,000 ballots, "so we haven't quite doubled our number but we're pretty close. So we're definitely seeing historic numbers for early voting which we believe will translate into a higher than average turnout on Election Day as well."
Kruse stresses that voters who encounter problems or have questions seek help before they put the ballot in the box. "If you think you got the wrong ballot, if you maybe voted for a race that you didn't want to vote for, it's imperative that you call our office at 444-VOTE or go back to the election workers at the table."
Kruse says if you don't get help, your vote won't be counted. "Because it is a secret ballot, once you cast your ballot in the box we have no way to retrieve your ballot.