Just too many: All absentee votes will not be counted on election night
Published 5:21 pm Tuesday, November 3, 2020
- Warren County Election Commission Chairwoman Sarah Dionne, right, helps unload thousands of absentee ballots at the Warren County Courthouse on Nov. 3. The resolutions board completed the process of verifying and counting the absentee and provisional ballots Monday, nearly two weeks after the polls closed. (Tim Reeves/The Vicksburg Post)
For the first time Sarah Dionne can remember, all of the absentee votes cast during an election will not be counted on election night.
Dionne, the chairwoman of the Warren County Election Commission, said election officials worked all afternoon Tuesday on organizing and verifying the more than 4,000 absentee ballots received. But, she said, they simply will not have time to get them all done tonight.
By law, election officials cannot start processing absentee ballots before the polls close at 7 p.m. on Election Day.
“We are not going to stay here through the night,” Dionne said. “At some point, we will just have to recess and come back in the morning.”
In all, 4,089 absentee ballots were completed, far more than the previous record total of 1,775 during the 2016 presidential election.
In an election that has a tremendously competitive race for president, local voters also have decisions to make when it comes to the acceptance of medical marijuana in the state and the adoption of a new state flag. All those factors, officials have said, have caused a surge in local voting.
Early Tuesday, polling places reported long lines of voters waiting for polls to open. Those lines continued throughout most of the day before slowing slightly, Dionne said, in the afternoon. She expected another surge of voters after 5 p.m. Polls close at 7 p.m.
“Anyone in line at 7 p.m. will be allowed to vote,” Dionne said. “Once 7 p.m. arrives, the bailiff will stand behind the last person in line.”
She added that it is very likely that people will still be in line when 7 p.m. arrives.