The Maui News - Community members and observers from the Democratic and Republican parties last week said they were satisfied after testing new voting machines that will be used in this fall’s primary and general elections. Volunteers filled out ballots and ran them through the machines, comparing the vote count to the ballots they actually cast. “They can be satisfied that their votes were accurately recorded,” said state Chief Elections Officer Kevin Cronin. The voting machines provided by contractor Hart Intercivic look similar to ones used in prior elections, but have slight differences. The Hart machines are programmed with specific information for each voting district when a computer card is inserted. Some observers were concerned that the new system made it harder for the machines to be tested. For the test, all the computer cards were programmed to accept absentee ballots, so observers couldn’t see how the machines would function when programmed for specific voting locations. After Tuesday’s test, the voting machines were to be sealed with unique, serialized tags and stored until the primary election on Sept. 20.