Close races in Morgan County could have different results come Thursday. Following the close of last night’s results, there remain over 100 mail-in and nursing home votes left to be counted in Morgan County.
Morgan County Clerk Jill Waggener says due to the unusually higher number of write-in candidates this year, her office will be verifying those votes Thursday morning to ensure accuracy. She says the same holds true for the absentee and nursing home ballots.
“All of the counts as of right now are unofficial. We do have 105 vote by mail and nursing home ballots still to count which will be done tomorrow morning when I have a set of new election judges and my election specialist in the courthouse.
Once those ballots are processed and put through the machines we will then run those totals and add them to the totals from election night. So, unfortunately, any of these races that are very close could change by tomorrow mid-morning.”
The closest race in Morgan County coming out of Tuesday night is Ward Three in Jacksonville where the incumbent Brandon Adams trails challenger Kent Hannant Jr. by a single vote.
The South Jacksonville Board President is next with just 13 votes separating write-in candidate Tyson Manker, and long-time Village Trustee Dick Samples.
The next closest race, which could theoretically see a change is in Ward One where Darcella Speed leads Robert Thomas by 25 votes.
Waggener says however that the 105 votes are county-wide and which specific precincts they fall into will not be known until they are officially counted tomorrow morning beginning at 9:00 am.
She says the 105 absentee and nursing home vote total is a little bit higher than the average amount during this election historically. She says the uptick is small enough that it likely comes from some residents still being hesitant to vote in person due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.