“Elections aren’t just a one-day-and-done type thing. We’ve had a lot of changes and it’s admittedly been challenging for our local clerks to keep up with, but they’ve really stepped up.”
Lisa Posthumus Lyons has been the Kent County Clerk since January 2017. She says the county uses checks and balances like pre-election testing of equipment, post-election canvassing of results, and the ability to request a recount.
“I think all of those processes put together despite these changes, or maybe as part of these changes, really do help to give voters confidence that our elections are secure, they’re transparent, they’re fair, and they’re accurate.”
Posthumus Lyons explains that, while it may be old fashioned, paper is the holy grail of election integrity.
“And it’s not just the ballots that are paper. Almost all of our materials for elections come on paper. If something nefarious were to happen to those paper materials, there’s a backup, and then there’s a backup to the backup, and that’s what’s used after the election to canvass those results.”
Just over 12,000 voters cast ballots on the first day of early in-person voting in Kent County.
