Did Dominion voting machines fail testing for a primary recount in the race for Colorado secretary of state? No, that's not true: Dominion Voting Systems, the Colorado secretary of state's office and the El Paso County clerk and recorder's office all told Lead Stories that the machines passed testing. "This system did exactly as it should, worked properly, and the test passed with 100% accuracy," said Kristi Ridlen, spokeswoman for the El Paso County clerk and recorder's office.
The claim appeared in an article (archived here) published by The Gateway Pundit on July 29, 2022. Titled "BREAKING: Dominion Voting Machines FAIL Testing for Colorado Secretary of State Recount -- Major Discrepancy Reported with Logic and Accuracy Testing," the article opened:
Dominion Voting machines in El Paso County, Co. have reportedly produced large numbers of adjudications in their Logic and Accuracy test for the upcoming hand recount of the 2022 Primary election.
This is what the article looked like on social media at the time of writing:
BREAKING: Dominion Voting Machines FAIL Testing for Colorado Secretary of State Recount -- Major Discrepancy Reported with Logic and Accuracy Testing https://t.co/uU0K9qnuAr
-- Col Conrad Reynolds (@ColonelReynolds) July 30, 2022
El Paso County is conducting four recounts, including the Republican primary race for Colorado secretary of state. Ahead of those recounts, the county clerk and recorder's office in El Paso County completed a "Logic and Accuracy" test on all ballot-counting equipment. The test started on July 29, 2022, and was finished on July 30, 2022. In an email to Lead Stories, dated August 1, 2022, Ridlen reported on the results, writing:
The Logic and Accuracy test passed with 100% accuracy rate and the official requested recount began yesterday and will continue today. We couldn't have moved forward with the recount if the test failed, per Colorado Election Law.
Lead Stories also reached out to Colorado's secretary of state to ask about the article's claim. The office explained that the claim conflates voting equipment "failure" with additional adjudication, or scrutiny of ballots.
During an initial count, counties do not program their voting systems to send ballots containing undervotes for adjudication. Undervotes occur when voters opt not to vote in one or more races or measures on their ballots.
However, there is a heightened level of review for recounts, which means that a ballot that is undervoted and does not contain a vote for any candidate in one of the recount races will automatically be sent to adjudication, according to the office of the secretary of state. Those ballots, in other words, are flagged by the voting system for human review, which is done by bipartisan teams.
In an email to Lead Stories, dated August 1, 2022, the office of Colorado's secretary of state wrote:
As a result of the fact that El Paso County has four recounts taking place, for Secretary of State, Senate District 9, County Clerk and Recorder, and County Coroner, a high number of ballots are being sent to bipartisan teams of election judges for adjudication. This is to be completely expected. El Paso's voting system is working exactly as it should.
Dominion Voting Systems similarly said that its machines are working as they should. In a statement, the company wrote:
The machines are doing exactly what they have been configured to do during pre-election testing. Any claims about machine 'failures' are 100% false and a misrepresentation of the process.
The El Paso County clerk and recorder's office began the tabulation for the recounts on July 31, 2022. They were expected to be finalized no later than August 4, 2022.
