Wichita County is considering revising some ballot procedures after election results were delayed November 8. Wichita County Clerk Lori Bohannon presented the election canvass to the county commissioners at their regular meeting Monday morning. Bohannon said several factors contributed to the voting report that delayed a final local tally of votes by several hours. One reason was the more than 3,000 paper ballots mailed in – the most she has seen in her history with the county, Bohannon said. Usually the Monday prior to election day, an early ballot crew checks the signatures on the forms and other important information. This year, they were not able to review all of the forms on Monday.
There were also 454 military ballots that were e-mailed, but then had to be printed out, signed and sent back in. Bohannon said there were more than 1,000 paper ballots that had to be reviewed by hand because of boxes not colored dark enough, over/under votes, or other issues that cause problems with the mechanical equipment. “We do it in batches and if the machine rejects a ballot, it rejects the whole batch,” Bohannon said.
On one paper ballot, the voter checked just about every box, the clerk said, and this caused a short delay. Bohannon said they conferred with the technical support department who were able to fix the problem in about 15 minutes.
Another issue was the larger number of over/under votes and write-in votes. Every time there is an anomaly like this, the tabulating machine sends an alert. The staff then reviews the item and tells the machine to accept the ballot.
Full Article: County clerk explains election delay.
