The Sconi

All of Wisconsin’s voting machines must be tested prior to each election.  

In 2019, Chippewa Falls City Clerk Bridget Givens posted such a testing announcement in the Chippewa Herald. 

“Notice of public test for Sequoia Voting Systems Optech Insight and Sequioa Edge II voting equipment,” a public notice in 2019 reads. 

“You have to make sure every race tabulates, and undervotes, overvotes, that it kicks it back, that kind of thing. So, state statute actually specifies what we need to test,” Givens told the Sconi.   

Voting machines provided by Sequoia Voting Systems have come into question after it was revealed they were responsible for glitches changing the votes for thousands and for the company’s ties to Venezuela. 

Givens said such testing is a requirement before each election and that while the city previously had Sequoia Systems machines, they upgraded prior to the 2020 election.  

The tests are open to the public but not regularly attended and the reults are available by public records request only.  

“The county provided our equipment for us and always – to my knowledge and as long as I've been here – have provided the study of voting equipment so that all the municipalities in the county ... all have the same equipment,” Givens said. 

 Trump lost Wisconsin by just over 20,000 votes. 

Voting machines in Wisconsin are largely unregulated and companies that produce the machines are known for their secretive nature.