Officials expect vote totals to change, but not outcomes
It’s the morning after a huge voter turnout on Election Day, and there are some re-tabulations underway at the Platte County Board of Elections.
The recounting that is necessary applies to absentee votes, of which there are about 18,000 ballots, says Chris Hershey, a director for the board of elections. While election officials say the recalculation will change individual vote counts for candidates and amendment questions on the ballot, they don’t believe it will change any outcomes.
It will, however, slightly lower the voter turnout percentage, which election officials Tuesday night had announced at 84.5%.
“At the end of last night we printed the precinct by precinct totals, we realized that we have recorded about 1,357 more absentee votes than we should have,” Hershey told The Landmark about 7 a.m. Wednesday.
“During the scanning process we had a few batches where the scanned didn’t match the hand tally by between one and 12 votes. Those batches were re-scanned and re-counted to get to the same number. I think that one of those original scanned batches was included in the totals on accident. We are working now to correct the error,” Hershey remarked.
And that work will continue throughout the day Wednesday and beyond, apparently.
Asked when the process will be completed, Hershey at about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday told The Landmark: “I’m afraid it won’t be today. We are looking at re-tabulating all absentees so we are sure that we are sure. That’s going to push us to 18,000 ballots. We have scanned about 1,500 so far this morning.”
Hershey added: “This process will change vote totals in every race. However, I don’t expect it to change any outcomes. Percentages should stay similar, while lowering vote totals.”
The ballpark total voter turnout will be closer to 82% or just above, he said.