Lee County pulled a machine out of service during the mandatory pre-primary accuracy test, and the supervisor has recused herself from certifying this election

Money & World

The Editorial Team · July 25, 2026

An empty polling room with white voting booth privacy panels reading VOTE DAY, and a table holding ballots, water glasses and I Voted stickers.

Photo: Edmond Dantès / Pexels

What it changes

The useful fact for a Lee County voter is that the machine came out before any ballots were counted, not after. A logic and accuracy test exists to run known ballots through the equipment and check that the totals come back right, so a unit that fails and gets pulled is the test doing its job rather than evidence of a problem with the count. It is also public by law, and any resident can attend. The second fact worth knowing is structural. Persons-Mulicka is running her first primary as Supervisor of Elections and has stepped off the Canvassing Board for this cycle because family members and candidates she endorsed are on the ballot, so the people signing off on the accuracy of the equipment and later certifying results are a county judge, an investigator from the State Attorney's Office and her own information technology director. She was asked directly whether that last name leaves enough separation, given he reports to her, and said it does. Readers can weigh that themselves, and the canvassing board meetings are open. Then there are the dates, which are the part that actually costs people their vote. Registration closed on July 20, so nobody can still register or switch parties for this primary, which matters in Florida because the primary is closed and a voter's party affiliation decides which ballot they get. What remains open is how to vote: early voting from August 8 through August 15 at 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, Election Day on August 18 with polls open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., a vote-by-mail request deadline of 5 p.m. on August 6, and a hard 7 p.m. Election Day arrival deadline for a mailed ballot, which the office suggests posting by August 4.

Lee County election officials spent Friday testing the equipment that will count ballots in the August 18 primary, and one of the machines did not pass. It has been pulled. Chorus Nylander reported the test for WINK Investigates.

The testing took place on the third floor of the Melvin Morgan Constitutional Complex in Fort Myers, where election staff, information technology personnel and the county Canvassing Board ran what Florida law calls a logic and accuracy test across vote-by-mail scanners, early voting equipment and Election Day tabulators.

That test is not a courtesy. Section 101.5612 of the Florida Statutes, titled Testing of tabulating equipment, requires the supervisor to conduct a public test on any day not more than 25 days before the commencement of early voting, requires public notice of the time and place at least 48 hours beforehand, and states that the test shall be open to representatives of the political parties, the press, and the public. The same section requires the canvassing board to convene and certify to the accuracy of the test.

One piece of equipment failed. "We had an operational error with one of the pieces of equipment, and it will be removed and not utilized in the primary election," Supervisor of Elections Jenna Persons-Mulicka said. She described the outcome as the system behaving correctly, saying the test worked as intended.

Persons-Mulicka is navigating her first primary election cycle in the role, and she has recused herself from the county Canvassing Board for this cycle because family members and candidates she endorsed appear on the ballot. Certification duties are instead being handled by an independent board made up of County Judge Zachary Gills, State Attorney's Office Chief of Investigations J.S. Purdy and Elections IT Director Todd Putnam.

Nylander asked her whether that arrangement leaves enough separation, since Putnam is a member of her own staff, and whether her presence during the testing could itself present an issue. She said it does not. Persons-Mulicka said any member of the public can come to any of the canvassing board meetings, and that she took an oath to uphold the Constitution and has a job to make sure the election is run accurately and fairly.

The dates come from the Supervisor of Elections office. Early voting runs Saturday, August 8 through Saturday, August 15, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. Election Day is Tuesday, August 18, with polling locations open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Requests to have a vote-by-mail ballot sent out must be in by 5 p.m. on Thursday, August 6, and a returned ballot has to arrive before 7 p.m. on Election Day, which is why the office recommends mailing no later than August 4. The deadline to register to vote or change party affiliation passed on Monday, July 20.

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