The Elections Office says it was due to the large number of ballots to be counted.
Frederick, Md (KM) It may be some time before we know the results of the absentee ballot count from Tuesday’s general election. “We have enough absentee ballots that it’s going to take us two days to go through the process,” says Stuart Harvey, Election Director for Frederick County.
He says the Board of Elections, sitting as the Board of Canvassers, decided to halt absentee ballot counting Thursday afternoon, and resume the process on Friday beginning at 9:00 AM. “If we continued today, we would take some very tired staff people, volunteers and board members well into the evening. We don’t want to exhaust anyone. They’re already exhausted from the hard work they did on the election,” says Harvey.
No results will be released until Friday afternoon when the absentee ballot counting is completed, Harvey says.
He says knocking off early on Thursday will give these exhausted individuals an opportunity to go home and get some rest so they will be refreshed on Friday when they resume counting.
The Board of Elections says more than 2,800 ballots were processed on Thursday. The total amount of absentee ballots this year is expected to be more than 5,000.
Harvey say extending the count for a second day is not unusual. “We saw how many absentee ballots were coming in, and the Board had already figured we might have to do two days worth of counting. So this is not all that unusual,” he says.
Harvey says the additional time needed for counting will not impact the scheduled provisional ballot counting scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 16th.
He says the counting is open to the public. Anyone who wants to watch can drop by the Elections Office at 340A Montevue Lane beginning at 9:00 AM.
By Kevin McManus