A technical issue with voting equipment from a Waverly precinct caused a brief delay in final election results being released in Morgan County Tuesday night.
Morgan County Clerk Sherry Sills says the problem arose when equipment from Waverly Precinct 1 was brought in for tabulation at the Morgan County Courthouse.
Sills says a thumb drive used in the election process would not accept the ballots, forcing election officials to recreate the precinct’s information and rerun the ballots.
“And the thumb drive that we use did not accept the ballots, so we had to recreate that precinct and then rerun the ballots”
Sills says the additional work delayed the final results by approximately 45 minutes.
Despite the late-night hiccup, Sills says Election Day went smoothly across the county, with heavy voting reported at the courthouse and at polling places throughout Morgan County.
Sills confirmed that voter turnout was just over 50 percent, exceeding expectations for the midterm election.
“I don’t think we thought it was going to be as busy as it was, but it was a very good turnout.”
Sills says approximately 100 ballots were still outstanding as of Tuesday night. Election officials have a 14-day period following the election to receive eligible outstanding ballots before finalizing the results.
Sills also praised her office staff and election judges throughout Morgan County for their work handling the heavier-than-anticipated turnout.