St. Joseph County tests voting machines ahead of Indiana's May primary

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind.- St. Joseph County election officials are working to make sure everything runs properly for Indiana's primary election next month.

With the younger generation playing a huge role in shaping this year's election outcome, it's important to engage younger voters.

College students were at the county election warehouse Wednesday practicing how to cast ballots and learning exactly how the voting process works.

The voting process is actually easier than you may think.

You simply feed the ballot into the machine between the two arrows, doesn't matter which way you put it in.

Then, you'll see a little number ticker on the screen.

Once that number goes up, it confirms your ballot was cast successfully.  

During the test, 12 open-vote optical machines are chosen at random, with many students getting the opportunity to cast test ballots.

St. Joseph County Clerk, Amy Rolfes says they just received a grant from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission called the “Help America Vote College Program”, which aims to get young people motivated and involved in the election process.  

“A lot of people, a lot of college students, say 'I hate politics', this is not about politics, this is about the process of how our elections work, so Democrat, Republican, it doesn't matter. To learn more carefully about how the election process works is the whole point of work the vote," said Rolfes.

"Work the Vote" is a program that's been created in the clerk's office to recruit vote center workers.

Officials tell me that they do have some openings for vote center techs and poll worker positions.

Also, there are upcoming training sessions for all vote center workers.

You can head here to learn more about Work the Vote 2024.