KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — Data for absentee ballots in the City of Kalamazoo began updating on the Kalamazoo County Election Results webpage around 10:00 p.m. Wednesday night.
We will be updating numbers on our results article at this link.
— Original Story —
It’s been a waiting game for Kalamazoo County.
Precincts throughout the area were reported almost instantly after polls closed, but absentee ballots were a game changer for a number of the local races.
For example, Portage’s absentee ballots flipped the winner for Michigan’s 61st House District race. Bronwyn Haltom was leading for most of the night but Christine Morse was eventually declared the winner when those ballots came in. Morse has 31,885 votes and Haltom has 27,089.
As of 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, Kalamazoo County Clerk Tim Snow said they were still waiting on the city of Kalamazoo’s absentee ballots, over 21,000 of them.
He says the delay is due the high volume of absentee ballots and the fact that they had to duplicate many ballots to resolve a number of mistakes made by voters. Some people crossed out bubbles, ripped ballots, or made other markings that could not go through the tabulator. Snow adds that it takes a long time to duplicate ballots.
“Just because they’re late, doesn’t mean there’s a problem. It’s a huge, huge volume that we’re trying to deal with,” Snow added.
At last reported election night, Snow said they had roughly 55,000 voters in the precincts, over 95,000 absentee ballots were issued, and over 91,000 absentee ballots were returned. The return rate was about 96% which Snow said was outstanding.
Overall, Snow said there were no major issues at the precincts and he was very happy with how election night turned out. However, the job is not done.
In a Twitter post made Wednesday around 3:30 p.m., City Clerk Scott Borling issued the following statement:
“The City Clerk’s Office and Absent Voter Counting Board are working hard to complete the tabulation of the City’s absent voter ballots and report the results, and we expect to have the counting finished tonight. We are focused on the accuracy of the results and ensuring that every vote counts. Community members are asked to be patient as counting continues.”
At that same time, Kalamazoo Mayor David Anderson issued the following statement on Twitter:
“We have always had free and fair elections in Kalamazoo, and 2020 will be no different. Our City Clerk and Kalamazoo’s elections staff are focused on counting every vote. With a record number of absentee ballots, we have to be patient and allow them the time they need to do so.”
Then, around 5:45 p.m., WOOD TV reported via Twitter that there are around 2,600 ballots left that need to be counted. The absentee ballots represent about two thirds of the vote, according to City Clerk Scott Borling.
Data for absentee ballots began updating around 10 p.m. on the Kalamazoo County Election Results page.
We’ll have updates as they come. Local election results can be found here.
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