Secretary of state staff will initiate an examination of the applicant's equipment after receiving a completed application and a working model of the equipment, documentation, and software to be reviewed.

The examination verifies that the system or equipment meets all applicable federal guidelines, and consists of a series of functional application tests designed to ensure that the system or equipment meets Washington state law and rules. The software tested shall be the approved software from the voting system test laboratory.

The examination may include an additional voting system test laboratory test at the discretion of the secretary of state. The examination shall include the set-up and conduct of mock elections, including a machine recount. The elections must feature at least ten precincts, with at least ten ballots in each precinct, and must test split precincts, partisan and nonpartisan offices, and contests that allow the voter to vote for multiple candidates. The tests must include ballots of various ballot styles, and include multiple candidates, write-in candidates and overvoted contests.