Ottawa County recorded just over 75% voter turnout for the general election. Clerk Justin Roebuck says between the number of absentee ballots returned and the number of voters that came out for early voting turnout got an early boost.
“We really started election day with 45% turnout which made the process go much more smoothly in the precincts.”
Rain and humidity early in the day did cause some problems with equipment and created short delays.
“It's amazing this is a factor quite often when it rains on election day, but our ballot paper is paper, and it absorbs moisture in the air and affects the ballots sticking together a little bit and sometimes affects how initially they go through the tabulator.”
The next step is the certification process in which a bipartisan board of canvassers conducts an audit of election numbers to certify the results.
“They will actually begin a review of every single poll book. They want to make sure the number of voters who cast their ballots listed in the pollbook balance and match the number of ballots the tabulator says were cast.”
That certification process can take up to 14 days.
