Elections counts took longer due to write-ins

While operations were generally smooth during the federal primary election last week, Elections Administrator Katie Harding said that the counting process took longer than anticipated because of voters submitting write-ins.

“We had more than 1,000 (ballots) where people wrote in candidates from other ballots,” she explained.

Harding said that, for example, voters would vote Democratic for U.S. Senator incumbent Jon Tester, but then write in one of the two Republican candidates running for Lake County sherrif.

“That write-in for sheriff would be tallied, but would not be added to the Republican tickets,” Harding explained.

Phone calls from the public to the elections office began shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 5, with elections staff telling callers when to expect updated results.

The first results, which were absentee ballots, weren’t released until around 10 p.m.

For the next several hours, a team of people worked with a tabulation machine and the ballots from the county dropped off after polls closed.

Another delay in the counting process was that the counting machine read every mark that appeared on the ballots.

“If voters mark the oval and other stray (marks) are made on the ballot, the tabulator can’t read it,” Harding explained.

An entire new duplicate ballot must be made by the tabulating team with only the ovals of the original ballot duplicated, Harding said, so the machine can read it.

“It seemed that people were really thinking about their candidate (choices), and they started to” write a write-in candidate, but then crossed it off, Harding said.

It also appeared that voters made marks on their ballots as they read the candidates with their pencils, which the machine picked up in addition to any other marks, such as a voter setting a pencil down on the paper, leaving a mark, Harding added.

There were 115 election judges trained for election day that worked in the 22 precincts covering Lake County, Harding said.

In the weeks and months leading up to the election, Harding said that she and her three office clerks worked to get step-by-step manual prepared for the election judges, as well as making sure the tabulator worked properly, verifying polling locations were reserved and make sure supplies for judges were ready.

Cleaning up after an election takes several days, as the team restocks supplies.

Provisionals are counted following the election, in which case the elections office will count 120 on Monday, June 18.

On Monday, votes will also be certified in the Lake County Commissioner’s chambers, on the second floor of the Lake County Courthouse.

Harding said that a post-election audit will be conducted, in which results are printed out and the elections office staff will compare how many ballots in the central count were rejected.

They’ll then take numbers from the system showing how many ballots were issued as absentees and take the rejection log for further comparison, making sure the numbers balance.

Reconciliation forms filled out by election judges will be reviewed, too, making sure that what was filled out after the polls closed is what the tabulator read after.

“It’s a way to show that everything is transparent. We’re backing up” the numbers each staff member has, making sure the voting tabulation process has been consistent, Harding said.

According to the 2017 estimate by the United States Census Bureau, there are approximately 30,273 residents in Lake County.

Out of the 18,160 registered voters, 7,843, or 43.2 percent, voted last week.