CINCINNATI (WXIX) – Five days out from Election Day, the Hamilton County Board of Elections tested its vote tally.

The cars have been tested for several weeks, and on Thursday, the tests went well.

“So we’re essentially simulating election day,” explained Alex Linser, Hamilton County’s deputy director of elections. “We run ballots through the same voting machines that will be used on election day in polling stations. We run ballots through our high-speed scanners that we use to count postal ballots and then tabulate them to determine their results.”

The system used on Election Day is the same system used in previous election cycles, which Linser says helps ensure their staff is familiar with the process.

“It’s really important for people to know that these machines are never connected to the Internet,” Linser said. “In fact, the machines have to be shown not to have the ability to even connect to a wireless signal, so all we’re doing is a physical data recovery.”

In addition to the machines, a separate team counts the ballots.

It was all a game during Thursday’s tests, election commission officials say.

Early voting is still underway in Hamilton County with potential record numbers.

Officials say as of Thursday afternoon, 74,673 early in-person ballots and 59,662 mail-in ballots had been counted.

Early voting in Hamilton County ends Nov. 3.

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