Sitka will test its ballot machines in public before the October election

Sitka residents can watch the machines that will count their ballots get checked.

The Municipal Clerk's Office will run logic and accuracy testing on the automatic tabulating equipment at 1 pm Thursday, Sept. 3, at Harrigan Centennial Hall. The session is open to the public, and city code requires the test before every election.

Sitka fills six seats on Oct. 6: mayor, two Assembly seats and three School Board seats, one of them a one-year term finishing out A. Williams's.

The Alaska Division of Elections says its own tabulation system is certified by the federal Election Assistance Commission, tested for logic and accuracy before each election, and never connected to the internet during programming or testing. That describes the state's system. Sitka runs its own municipal election, and its election pages do not say whether its equipment matches.

Voters must be registered by Sept. 6 to take part. That falls on a Sunday, with Labor Day the next day.