Canvassing Of General Election Ballots Resumes Wednesday

Provisional & more  mail-in ballots will be counted.Frederick County Board of ElecfionsFrederick, Md (KM) The Frederick County Board of Elections is scheduled on Wednesday to resume the canvassing of mail-in ballots from last week’s general election. “We have a total of 4,151 remaining mail-in ballots to count. 989 are web delivery, and 5,140 are regular ballots that we have remaining to count,” says Barbara Wagner, the County’s Election Director.She says web-delivery ballots are those that are sent out on line to voters who requested it. Those individuals print out the ballots, mark up their choices and send them back in the mail. Wagner says they can be a challenge to count. “When we get it, we might get it printed out on eight pieces of paper separately, or back-to-back. We have to duplicate every web ballot that we get,” she says.But Wagner says on Wednesday, the counting of the provisional ballots will be counted. “Approximately 2,600 provisional ballots which we’ll start off because that’s our provisional canvass And, then, if we have time, afterwords, we’re going to include some mail in ballots,” she says.The canvassing will continue on Thursday. “We will count anything that comes in the mail on Thursday that is postmarked before or on November 8th. We probably won’t finish up to 5,140 that we currently we have. So whatever’s residual or left over from tomorrow’s {Wednesday} canvass on Wednesday, we’ll put into Thursday’s canvass,”: says Wagner.Certification of the election results is expected to take place on Friday. “Certification is making sure that all the ballots that we have we received in, and all the ballots that we’ve scanned,. that number’s the same. And all the numbers that we’ve accepted are the same. So there are three numbers that we’re looking for to make that they’re the same before we certify,” says Wagner.After certification, any candidate can file a request for a recount. Wagner says if the margin of  victory is one-quarter (.25%)  percent, the recount is free. “If it’s over a quarter of percentage, then it’s something they would have pay for and put a bond at the Circuit Court with. And then we would start that process after the bond has been paid,” she says.By Kevin McManus