Counting Continues In Oktibbeha County

OKTIBBEHA COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – It’s the day after Election Day 2018, but in some counties, the work’s not over just yet.

Counting continued in Oktibbeha County, almost 24 hours after polls closed.

Once election polls close at 7PM, the important work of counting the votes begins.

“Election night, they call out results, nobody realizes that three to four weeks prior to the election, and then at least two weeks after the election, we’re trying to get everything done and certified and now, with the voter ID, they’ve got five business days that we have to wait on those. We can’t certify the election, until we give those the opportunity,” says Oktibbeha County District 1 Election Commissioner, Greg Fulgham.

More than half of the registered voters in Oktibbeha County went to their precincts on Tuesday.

Circuit Clerk Tony Rook says a high turnout was expected, but it ended up being in his words, monstrous.

“As a result, we actually ran low on affidavit ballots, so there were several precincts that had to be re-supplied with affidavit ballots, which doesn’t usually happen.”

Rook says the county also ran low on absentee ballots.

“Absentee ballots can be run through a scanner, which is a fairly, fast process. However, we had to make copies of these absentee ballots. Those cannot be run through a scanner, so they must be tallied by hand. That slows down the process as well.”

Causing a full night of counting on election night, plus a full day of it today, the day after polls closed.

Rook says they’re hoping to be done by Thursday.

“These poll workers work approximately a 14 or 15-hour day. That’s very tough as we know. Additionally, the individuals who work up here in the court, put in about a 20-hour day. Most of us received probably four hours of sleep last night and then we’re back up here at 8 o’clock.”

All absentee ballots have now been counted, but the count continues for affidavits.

Final numbers won’t be released until all ballots are counted.