Virginia Martin has been the Democratic Election Commissioner in Columbia County, New York since 2008. She has a Ph.D. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in rhetoric and communication. Since the introduction of optical scanners in 2010, she and her Republican counterpart have conducted hand-counts of paper ballots on every race, for every election. They have developed an efficient, prompt, cost-effective, and fully secure bipartisan process that welcomes public oversight. Its modest funding is spent locally on appreciative and well-trained poll workers. She has given interviews to local media and on public radio about her county's vote-tabulation process; and has presented the methodology at the American Statistical Association, the Take Back the Vote conference in Berkeley, California, and the Election Verification Network.