There were many compenets to test to make sure the voting machines worked perfectly during early voting and on Election Day in Smith County. Patrick Brands, left, Field Technician for Smith County IT and Colton Sheffield, Network Administrator, Smith County IT, made sure everything worked before going to polling locations.

Voters in Smith County walking up to cast their ballot on Election Day had no idea computer glitches were being fixed before they could say “president.”

As the dust from the 2020 election finally settled, one thing was clear for voters — the Smith County Elections office had a flawless time at the polls on election day and with early voting.

To understand how this happened requires a look into the digital part of voting and the planning between several departments, especially the Department of Information Technology.

In the past, if lines were long or machines went down, the phones were ringing at the newspaper. This year, no calls, no social media complaints and no disputed voting results.

When asked how things went perfectly, Smith County Elections Administrator Karen Nelson laughed with relief and said, “It wasn’t perfect, but problems were fixed before voters or anyone working the polls even noticed.”

POWER OF PRAYER

Sure it takes planning and technology to pull off an election of any size. But this year, the fact was there would be a lot of people voting.

“I was surprised we had 20,000 more voters during early voting, but at the same time knew it would be higher because we had the extra week the governor gave us,” Nelson said. “I thought it was a great way for everyone to get out and vote and spread that out.”

As it became apparent voting numbers would be higher than 2016, that’s when friends and co-workers reached out.

“Because we had such a high turnout, we had a lot of people praying … I had more people texting me saying they were praying for our office than ever before,” Nelson said.

Even though technology was a scare, this year also featured COVID-19.

“Both political parties worked hard to make sure there was adequate staff at all polling places,” said Nelson. “Some people couldn’t come in the morning, others felt sick at night, but each time, we had someone who could come in.”

75 or 7 to 35

Those numbers almost look like a song title from the band Chicago. They represent what Chief Information Officer Don Bell’s IT team with the Smith County Department of Information Technology had to go through to assist the elections board.

They had 75 tablets to set up at seven early voting locations and 35 polling sites.

Instead of taking these tablets that look like iPads to the field, work was done weeks ahead of time.

“Another huge and positive thing was our Smith County IT department putting elections as a top priority with the technology aspect,” said Nelson. “They have strike teams across Smith County to put little fires out before I even hear about them.

“That makes it run smoother when the judges don’t have to worry about their laptop computers,” she continued. “There were no bumps in the road as IT stepped up and took a lot of stress off the elections workers and made the day go smoother.”

The IT team at Smith County went a step further to make sure the day went smoother.

“We actually installed them so the poll workers did not have to do it. From our perspective it’s not complex, but for those who don’t work with these or connecting them to the internet, it’s overwhelming,” said Bell. “We don’t get a chance to repair them another time, they have to work. We have to deal with certain issues and troubleshoot as we usually do. We had them ready for early voting.”

And this year, the IT team was out doing even more prep than usual.

Bell explained, “About a month before the election, we broke out all 75 units, set those up and started burning those in. They set up the system, troubleshoot issues, check external printers, the bar code printer — it’s a mini desk for those who work on a computer.”

PROS AT WORK

When Nelson said fires were put out before anyone noticed, the fact was, sometimes printers went down, which would have meant ballots could not print. It happened all over Texas, all over the country.

But not in Smith County.

“With the printer, the system might go offline as all 35 locations were reporting back to a server,” explained Bell. “One person was monitoring it at each location and would notice if it was offline. Essentially, you are using MiFis (jetpacks the size of a phone used just to connect to the internet) in metal buildings. They received a notice it was offline and someone reset it and got it back online before anyone noticed.”

That’s where more teamwork came in. Some IT workers were fixing voting issues on-site, others back at the county office building.

“We had issues all the way to the end, some we fixed there, some remote, but most were minor,” Bell said. “We had to replace printers. It’s a large county, we had to have people all over.”

The entire IT department was deployed across Smith County, with one person at the office on the help desk for election issues or other support needed by the county on Election Day.

“There was a help desk at the Hub, managing calls coming in and being the center point of contact for issues that were happening,” Bell said. “We set up teams so there was communication between the voting liaison. The judge sent out people who communicated with (everyone involved).”

Bell said the first hours on Election Day were critical.

“The first few hours are precarious. If you have a problem early, that’s when (voting) lines back up,” Bell said. “When equipment went down, we moved quickly. Once we got past the early rush, we were fine.”

LOOKING BACK, LOOKING AHEAD

Nelson thought the poll workers were more prepared than ever. From employees to volunteers, everyone took this election seriously.

“We implemented online training everyone had to take part in,” Nelson said. “They were able to take it at their convenience. I think what was useful is they could take the training multiple times if they wanted to.”

Nelson said in past years, election employees and volunteers had so many roles including checking ballots and becoming an IT person. With more teams coming together this year, the election workers had one job instead of three or four.

“What also helps is Smith County does very well with working together with both political parties and that’s what I’ve noticed since I’ve been there,” Nelson said.

As Bell looked back at the early voting period and Election Day, he said, “We are always proud when things happen like this. We had to coordinate so many things with different departments to set up times and install.”

Once the election was over, nothing was boxed up. Instead, it looked like an election all over again in the IT department.

“We collected all the equipment and brought it back in,” Bell said. “Then we set it back up to make sure it still works for the next election.”