NC State Board of Elections begins campaign to boost voter confidence

RALEIGH (WTVD) -- The State Board of Elections is pushing a message for voters:

"We want you to know what is being done throughout North Carolina to ensure #yourvotecountsnc," State Board of Elections Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell said.

The agency is launching a new campaign and hashtag to explain the steps it is taking to protect the election process from physical and cyber security threats.

"It is making sure that we want to guarantee the confidence in the elections process by maintaining a secure process and an open process," Wake County Board of Elections Director Gary Sims said.

Election officials said they hold mock elections before voters come to the polls. Then after the elections they hand count certain votes to check the machine's accuracy. Also they said they're always working to stonewall cyber attacks.

"Our goal is to look at the overall strategy versus looking at individual things that are possibly going to effect the election systems," Cyber Security Advisor to the State Board of ElectionsTorry Crass said.

These are strategies have always been important but with voter confidence on the line, they want people to be aware of the process.

"What we're trying to do is tell our story. These things have been going on, we're just aware that people don't know. And we need to give them that info. That's part of the transparency and the open operations that we have," Bell said.

On Election Day, Wake County has more than 2,300 people working the polls. Officials said to be more aware of the process, they're hoping more people will get involved.