Joy Smith, a Gillespie County elections judge, and Bill Briggs, the central count judge, filled out sample ballots in front of Jim Riley, the Gillespie County elections administrator, during the elections department’s public testing of the tabulating equipment that will be used during the Constitutional Amendment Election on Tuesday, Nov. 4. State law does not permit hand counting for general elections and optical scanners like the ones tested at the elections office will be used. Three people attended the testing held last Thursday at the elections office. – Standard-Radio Post/Christine Granados