Going into what is likely to be one of the country’s most historical elections, Freeborn County Auditor-Treasurer Dennis Distad said he’s confident in the ability of the county and state’s voting systems to accurately gather and tabulate votes.

Though some people across the United States are showing concern about potential voter fraud or worries about the accuracy of some voting systems, Distad said he doesn’t think there’s anything to worry about in Freeborn County.

He said people can’t compare Minnesota with other states because the systems are different.

“I really don’t think there’s a lot of voter fraud out there,” he said of concern in the state.

In the weeks before the election, he and his office have been busy preparing for it — proofing ballots, testing machines and training judges.

And though it may seem like an easy process for people when they go into vote, there’s much more that goes into preparing for the election process than many people realize, he said.

Several weeks in advance, he and his staff test every machine that either marks or tabulates votes, and then every machine is zeroed out and a seal is put on the machines’ memory cards to prevent someone from tampering with results. Every machine is tested, verified and sealed, he said.

Then, on Friday judges from each polling place could come pick up their supplies and equipment.

Over the weekend the judges will go through their supplies to make sure they have everything they need before Tuesday’s election.

Election judges went through their most recent training Oct. 22, where they learned about general voting procedures including the differences between the primary election and the general election and aspects like write-in candidates that were not an option during the primary election, for example.

“The election plan is in place,” Distad said. “Everything is ready.”

He explained the machines the county uses and said they have been proven accurate.

The first machine is one that marks the ballot for the voter. This is the second election these are being used in. People with disabilities — or any voter if it’s available — can use the AutoMARK machine. It allows the ballot to be seen at a larger size if desired, or to be seen with white lettering on a black background instead of the usual black lettering on a white background. There’s also headphones attached to it that allows people to hear the choices read to them if they desired, he said.

The machine scans the ballot and then goes through the questions one by one. It doesn’t let a voter vote more than once on a race that only allows one vote.

When the voter is finished answering all of the questions on the ballot, the machine lets the voter look back over his or her selections, to make sure everything is correct. Then it asks if the voter is ready to mark the ballot.

The ballot is marked, and then the voter or an election judge inserts it into the machine that tabulates the votes, he said. An election judge is only with the voter to get the process started and completed. When the voter is actually voting, he or she has full privacy.

Regarding the tabulation machine, Distad said, the machine is turned on by an election judge on the morning of Election Day after running through a series of questions to make sure the judge is ready to open the polls.

The machine prints a zero tape that has all the candidates running for office followed by zeroes. This shows that no votes have been taken yet. As votes come in, these numbers change.

If one of these machines goes down during the day, a separate compartment in it is opened to allow people to still put their ballots in. Then when the machine is operational again, the judges can put those ballots in to be tabulated.

At the end of the night, the information on the memory cards from the tabulation machines is directly downloaded into the computer system, which is tied into the state’s voting system, he said. No votes have to manually be put into the computer.

“There’s a lot of checking and a lot of verification because you don’t want the screwups,” Distad said.

If a voter has a concern about one of the machines during the election, he said, he and his staff would look at that machine after the polls are closed and re-test it. He didn’t anticipate this happening.

This past week there was a public accuracy test held for anyone who wanted to learn more about the machines and how they operate. Only one person attended.

And then on Nov. 10, there will be a Post Election Equipment Review, during which he and his staff will have to hand-count the votes in two precincts to verify results against the tabulating machine.

Usually, the only chance for error is sometimes on ballots where people used pencil instead of pen.

Regarding the concern some people have with Minnesota not requiring photo identification for same-day registration, Distad said, it’s an issue that has not been widely accepted by a lot of people.

But, if someone were to try to vote more than once, they would get flagged and then charged with doing so.

The punishment is not just a slap on the wrist, he said.

Another busy part of the election process is absentee voting.

Absentee ballots are placed into sealed secrecy envelopes that won’t be counted until Election Day.

On Friday afternoon, there had already abed 1,750 absentee ballots received, Distad said. At the last presidential election there were about 1,500.

The Freeborn County Auditor-Treasurer’s Office was opened Saturday for absentee voting.

Canvassing of the election will be Thursday.