COLUMBUS (WCMH) – Election officials said they will begin counting ballots as soon as the polls close on Tuesday, but it may take several hours before the unofficial election results are made available in Franklin County.
So far, more than 344,000 voters have mailed, dropped off, or cast in-person ballots in the county.
According to Aaron Sellers, the public information officer for the Franklin County Board of Elections, that amounts to approximately 40 percent of the county’s registered voters, and the results from their votes will be the first to be publicized when the polls close.
“At 7:30, all the absentee voting, whether it be in-person that happened here or anything that we’ve received through, probably, today, will be in that initial blast of numbers,” Sellers explained.
In the hours that follow, Sellers said bipartisan groups of poll workers will return to the Board of Elections headquarters with ballots and other election equipment so the votes cast on Tuesday can be counted.
Sellers pointed to 2016, when the county’s unofficial results were not available until almost 2 a.m. the day after election day. He said there may be a similar outcome this year.
“If everything runs smoothly, as we hope it does, we hope to have numbers at a fairly reasonable time,” he said. “What that time is? I don’t know. It certainly will be in the early morning hours of Wednesday, I can assure you that.”
Sellers said that while the county has until Nov. 28 to certify the election results, the board will likely certify Franklin County’s results on Nov. 18.