Dodge City, Kan. (KWCH) – In 2023, the Kansas Division of Legislative Post Audit released a report. Report on election security proceduresThe assessment, in which auditors evaluated 55 best practices in 15 Kansas counties during the 2022 general election. This includes those that host larger metropolitan areas and smaller counties than the 15 counties.

These 55 best practices include five Kansas laws and 50 national recommendations. Results were mixed for all districts evaluated, with some areas rated adequate and inadequate.

“Counties have different security needs depending on their size and the resources they have,” said Sam Dadds, Kansas Senior Auditor for Legislative Post Audit. Therefore, it is unrealistic to expect every district to comply with all 55 practices.”

One district stood out. This month, two follow-up audits were released, prompting lawmakers to raise concerns about the Ford County Elections Office. hearingand sent a stern message to the county clerk for not showing up to answer questions about inspections.

“If I were in Ford County, I would have serious concerns about the upcoming election,” was one lawmaker’s response. October 7 hearing.

Another lawmaker on the Post-Legislative Oversight Committee noted: “It’s a little disturbing that the county clerk isn’t here to answer these questions. Simple things, round-trip transfer of materials concern me.”

Here’s the problem: Two audits released this month focus on Ford County. the first one Examining Ford County’s Election Security Procedures for the 2022 General Election.. If the second Examining Ford County’s Ballot Reconciliation Process During the 2024 Primary Elections.

Beginning with the 2022 General Election-focused audit, which was a follow-up to a 2023 audit that investigated the same issue but initially re-evaluated it in Ford County, auditors were unable to access all materials and equipment needed to complete the audit.

A subpoena was issued in August 2024, mandating participation.

“Some of these documents from Ford County were sealed with the ballots. “By law, the ballots remain sealed and we cannot open them without a subpoena, so we were not able to review these documents,” said Sam Dadds, Senior Auditor for the Kansas Post Audit Legislative Division, who worked on the audits. “Other One problem was that while he was at the Ford County Elections Office, he was not given access to the county’s election administration computer.”

Ford County Clerk Debbie Cox responded to this subpoena during a hearing. August hearing relevant.

Cox said, “I believe I have completed all the documents they requested, I understand. “I emailed them and sent them a box.”

There are four subject areas that auditors examined during this pursuit in Ford County.

Overall Process Safety was rated as adequate. Ballot tracking, voting, and tabulation machine security were both adequate and inadequate; The keynote for testing applications was not considered equal for voting and tabulating machines.

The weakest areas were election administration computer security and transmission and movement security of election results, media and the transfer of votes from the election office to the polling place and back to the election office. This is again because auditors do not have access to what is required to complete this part of the 2023 audit.

A follow-up audit confirmed that the computer on which the election results were collected was not connected to the internet and did not have additional software, as required by law, and was stored in a locked room. However, since it could not be proven that this was the case in 2022, the district was not given a loan.

Dadds said, “Two years have passed since the circular in 2022; We couldn’t give them credit for that. This is why Ford County has lower scores in this area. When it comes to transfer and movement security, this includes things like poll workers returning ballots to the election office. Part of the security of transfer and movement will be ensuring that ballots are in a sealed container. The seals have serial numbers that are tracked on them. There is a custody form stating that these ballot papers were accounted for by so-and-so and they were returned to this person at the election office. Ford County didn’t really have any documents like this that we could review in 2022; therefore some transfer and movement safety scores were lower.”

The 2024 audit said documents were available for the 2024 primaries.

The final area was written safety policies, and those in Ford County were deemed inadequate. In the 2023 audit, none of the 15 counties were rated as having written election security policies.

Ford County responded to the audit with the following: “I work with the Secretary of State’s office on an ongoing basis to create templates for forms and security processes. I just purchased the test deck. I test every machine and CF card. It is the CF cards that count the ballots. Every CF card is tested as well as the machines.”

The other 2024 audit of Ford County elections focused on ballot compromise during the 2024 primary. This involved voters following the process of signing the poll book before voting, and the number of votes cast at the end of the poll had to match the number of people who signed the poll book.

The audit found one in five voting precincts was out of balance due to fewer entries than the number of votes cast. The audit also said it was auditors who found the problem when reviewing documents.

The audit reported that a poll worker signed another poll worker to vote but never completed the process of signing the voting book after a malfunction in the electronic pool book. After reviewing it, auditors were able to see that the process had begun but was never completed. In this case, the audit said the surveyor had to switch to another survey book to complete the process.

In response, the Ford County Election Clerk said he plans to retrain poll workers and workers to report voting equipment malfunctions.

The final part of this audit was the finding that the language in the voter declaration, ballot book declaration, and advance ballot request had outdated language that did not reflect current law. This is updated as of September 2024.

Ford County’s response on the second audit was: “I will receive special training for supervising judges to review the forms again. I will highlight these forms and how to fill them out. I will ask them what might help them fill out this form or better understand it. I will review the voting books with all board staff.” I will look into it again and tell the Supervisory Judges and poll workers to pull it out and let me know immediately if they have any problems with any of the machines.”

12 News attempted to speak with Cox multiple times about these audits, but we were told he was too busy preparing for the upcoming election. Instead, he issued a statement that said: “I will continue to be trained by board staff and will continue to work with the Secretary of State’s Office on security. “I have no further comment.”

Again, things the audit said will differ from Ford County’s audit response for the upcoming election include: items purchased to test election equipment, voter affidavit updated to comply with state law, documentation available for ballot tracking and a focus on education.

“See if they’re making any progress or getting better. This is a pretty terrible situation,” a Kansas lawmaker said at an Oct. 7 hearing.

This month, lawmakers ordered a new audit to evaluate the November general election in Ford County. It will look at many of the same issues, including whether new state laws are being followed.

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