By John Barrella
The machines are powered on and one by one they are fed a stack of deliberately imperfect ballots — overvoted, blank, marked in the margins — to see whether they catch what a careless voter might do.
I spent a portion of yesterday morning with the Middleborough Town Clerk’s office watching it happen. Town Clerk Pamela Menconi and Election Director Tayla Bennett and Senior Clerk Brenda Jutras were more than accommodating: they answered every question put to them, walked me through the equipment, and showed me the machines themselves rather than describing them from across a desk.
It is called logic and accuracy testing, and in Massachusetts it is not optional. State law requires local election officials to hold public logic and accuracy testing of all tabulators that will be used in an election, with the testing date, time and location publicly posted, members of the public welcome to observe, and local party committees invited. The governing regulation, 950 CMR 54.02, is unusually specific about how it must be done — and about who is on the hook if it isn’t.
That person is the town clerk. The regulation states plainly that the city or town clerk is fully responsible for all pre-election testing and for counting the ballots afterward, and that the responsibility may not be delegated to the vendor.
Menconi said she and her team are “dedicated to ensuring a fair election process” for every voter in town, and that they “like to ensure they put plenty of safeguards in place” — both to keep an ordinary election day running smoothly and to plan for contingencies that may arise.
With the state primary set for Sept. 1 and the state election for Nov. 3, and with the town’s precinct and polling-place map having changed effective May 18, that planning matters more than usual this year.
What follows is our conversation, lightly edited for length and clarity, with context added where the rules behind the answers are worth knowing.
The Equipment
How many tabulators does the town own, and are all of them tested — including backups?
Eleven in total — one for each of the town’s nine voting units, plus two spares.
Middleborough votes in nine units — Precincts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5A, 6, 7 and 7A — spread across three polling locations at the Oak Point Club House, Middleborough High School and the John T. Nichols, Jr. Middle School.
The spares matter more than they sound. A tabulator that has not been tested cannot lawfully be swapped in on Election Day, so the backup units go through the same paces as the machines that will actually be used on Election Day.
Where are the tabulators kept between elections?
In a locked room, Menconi said, under storage standards set by both the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office.
Is any part of this equipment connected to a network?
No. That answer is consistent with the statewide picture: no voting tabulators in Massachusetts are connected to the internet, and only tabulators that count paper ballots are certified for use in the Commonwealth.
The Test Deck
Who physically builds the test deck, and how is the vote pattern decided?
Menconi and Bennett prepare it themselves, working in accordance with materials from LHS Associates, the Salem, N.H., election services company that handles coding and ballot production for a large share of New England municipalities.
The regulation sets a floor. A test deck of at least 50 ballots must be prepared under the clerk’s supervision, must adequately test the computer program, must demonstrate rejection of overvoted ballots, and must contain at least the elements of a model test deck prepared by the Secretary.
For the primary, is there a separate deck for each party ballot? And how many ballot styles does Middleborough have?
Yes — 50 of each. The town runs three distinct ballot styles.
That number is not arbitrary. Middleborough is carved among three state representative districts. Under the district list published by the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Precincts 2, 4, 5 and 7 fall in the Twelfth Bristol District, represented by Norman J. Orrall; Precincts 3, 6 and 7A fall in the Second Plymouth District, represented by John R. Gaskey; and Precincts 1 and 5A fall in the Twelfth Plymouth District, represented by Kathleen R. LaNatra.
A voter on one side of Middleborough and a voter on the other are, in a real sense, filling out different ballots — and the regulation requires that where more than one ballot format is used, every format be tested with the proper program and test deck.
How do you confirm the machine rejects overvotes and handles blanks, write-ins and stray marks?
The test deck includes ballots marked for more candidates than a race allows. The tabulator flags the overvote, and that race is recorded with no vote — as a blank.
Worth being precise here, because the term gets muddled: an overvote is not the same ballot fed twice. It is a single ballot on which a voter has marked more choices than the contest permits. The rest of that ballot still counts normally. Only the overvoted race goes uncounted.
Are the accessible ballot-marking devices tested?
Yes. Those units are tested as part of the same session, at the end.
Chain of Custody
Who seals the machines, what seal numbers are logged, and who verifies them at the polls?
Here Menconi drew a line, citing election security protocol. What she would confirm: seal numbers are recorded, the machines are zipped and bagged, and they are locked away with only the town clerk holding access.
The regulation backs the practice up. The clerk is required to secure all computer programs, test decks and computer results in a sealed container stored in a secure location. Testing itself must be completed no later than four days before the election, with a dated, signed printout of the results filed with the Secretary for state elections — meaning the paper trail exists even where the operational detail doesn’t get discussed publicly.
How are results transmitted to the state?
On paper. The machine prints a results tape, that tape is part of the certification process, and the tapes are sent to the state.
When Something Goes Wrong
Has a machine ever failed logic and accuracy testing here?
Yes. Menconi said a tabulator failed during the 2024 presidential primary and described a three-step response.
First, the voting wardens are instructed to shift to a hand-count process, with ballots placed into a bin rather than fed through the machine. Second, the office calls a director-level or higher representative at the vendor to troubleshoot. Third, the Secretary of the Commonwealth is notified.
That escalation tracks the rule. The clerk is required to report all computer problems, including tabulation errors and mechanical failures, to the Secretary. It is also the clearest illustration of what Menconi meant about safeguards: the contingency existed, it was documented, and voting continued. It is worth noting that in Massachusetts every voter casts a paper ballot, and those ballots are counted either by an electronic tabulator or by election workers tallying the votes by hand — a hand count is not an emergency improvisation but a recognized method under state law.
Was Middleborough selected for a post-election hand audit recently?
No — and that is expected rather than notable. Massachusetts audits are narrower than most voters assume. Under state law, an audit is conducted following any presidential general election, covering a hand count of ballots in 3 percent of precincts statewide, selected at a public random drawing, with audits performed in public view and totals amended before certification if the hand count differs. With no presidential race on the 2026 ballot, no precinct in Massachusetts will be audited under that statute this cycle.
What Readers Ask
If a machine miscounted, would anyone catch it?
The results tape is compared against the tally sheet kept at the precinct. A mismatch surfaces there, before certification.
That check is the first of several. After polls close, election workers record all votes on a paper tally sheet in each polling place, and local election offices use those tally sheets to compile unofficial results. Results become official only after they are checked thoroughly, certified by the local election official, reported to the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office, and certified again by the Governor and the Governor’s Council. Candidates also retain the right to petition for a hand recount to verify the official count.
What happens to my vote if I fill in two candidates by mistake?
The tabulator alerts you to the overvote before it accepts the ballot. That one race will be counted as a blank. You can change your selection or ask for a fresh ballot — and you should. The machine gives you the chance precisely so the choice stays yours rather than defaulting to nothing.
Who certifies these machines?
Two layers, not one. All ballot tabulators in Massachusetts are certified for use by both the federal Election Assistance Commission and the Secretary of the Commonwealth.
Can I watch the testing?
Yes. Members of the public are welcome to observe, and local party committees are invited. Written notice of the time and place goes to the chair of each party’s town committee, and the notice is posted in the clerk’s office at least three days beforehand. Check the Annex at 20 Centre St., or call the clerk’s office at 508-946-2415.
Menconi and her team are “proud of what they do,” she said, and the work bears that out. Very little of it is dramatic. It is a small staff feeding ballots into machines in a quiet room, four days ahead of an election most people will not think about until the morning they vote.
Editor’s note: This article describes Middleborough’s election procedures as they were explained and demonstrated during the tabulator testing session. Election administration involves technical detail and statutory requirements, and any errors of description or emphasis here are the author’s alone, not the Town Clerk’s office. Readers with questions about the town’s procedures, or who believe something has been described incompletely or incorrectly, are encouraged to contact Town Clerk Pamela Menconi or Election Director Tayla Bennett at 508-946-2415, or in person at the Town Hall Annex, 20 Centre St. Corrections may also be sent directly to The Goat News, and any confirmed error will be corrected and noted.
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