Elections prep underway

Medford, Ore. — With one week until Oregon’s primary election, ballots are flooding in and local elections offices are abuzz preparing. In Jackson County they are busy sorting ballots by precinct, and manually verifying signatures on each and every ballot.

On Tuesday they also did the public certification test of their tabulation equipment, a test they will repeat before the first ballot is counted.

“We want to make sure that between now and then that there’s been no tampering no nothing has happened to those machines to make sure the integrity of the election is upheld,” Jackson County Clerk Chris Walker says.

Starting Wednesday, dozens of board members from different political parties will begin opening ballots to prepare them for tabulation.

At last count Jackson County shows just over 17% of voters have either mailed or dropped off ballots. In Josephine County, just over 22% of ballots have been returned.