July 28, 2025
Johnson County took part in a random election audit for a state oversight program on Monday.
The Voting System Technical Oversight Program, or VSTOP, selected Johnson County for a random audit earlier this year. Based out of Ball State University in Muncie, VSTOP is a program where technicians test all of the election equipment used for an added layer of safety and security and to verify the results. They are the only group authorized by the state of Indiana to do audits officially.
Johnson County previously took part in a VSTOP post-election audit after the May 2024 primary election, which it later passed. It was the first time the county participated in the program, and 118 ballots were audited. There was a 100% match rate, meaning there was a 99% confidence rate that the machines functioned correctly and all election outcomes were correctly reported.
This year’s audit was different, though. It was significantly smaller in scale, with only one machine being tested, and unlike the past audit, county officials were able to handle it themselves.
“It’s the same organization [VSTOP], but just a different type of audit,” said Trena McLaughlin, county clerk, during Monday’s election board meeting. “And maybe because there were not any election, so to speak, this year VSTOP just randomly picked different counties to perform audits. For whatever reason, we were assigned one machine to audit.”
For the audit, McLaughlin was given a serial number for one of the county’s voting machines by VSTOP, was given an online form to fill out and was asked to appoint two county election officials to take part in the audit. She chose Election Board members Doug Lechner and Kevin Service, representing the Republican and Democratic parties, respectively.
“The clerk must be the one to complete the online random form,” McLaughlin said. “[The letter] also says that VSTOP highly recommends that the county clerk be one of the two persons completing the audit inspection, but I feel most comfortable with having a bipartisan team here.”
This audit was also not required to take place during the election board’s regular meeting on Monday. The county had until Aug. 30 to do the audit, but McLaughlin figured it would be easiest to do it after Monday’s meeting since all the parties were present, she said.
So after the meeting concluded, the audit took place. McLaughlin read off questions from and filled out the online form, while First Deputy Clerk Amy Briggs assisted Lechner and Service with testing the voting machine. The machine in question was used during the 2024 general election, superficially at Mt. Pleasant Christian Church, a vote center, on Election Day.
The process was quick to test the machine. Tests included making sure it powered on correctly and that the buttons worked as intended.
No issues were observed, and the machine worked correctly, officials said during the audit. Results were subsequently submitted to VSTOP.
NEWS COVERAGE PROVIDED BY: Noah Crenshaw at The Daily Journal – Franklin, Indiana