Election officials continue working to finalize Ga. runoff results

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - The results continue to come in from Tuesday’s Senate runoffs in Georgia.

The Secretary of State’s Office is gearing up for another busy day as America waits to see which party will control the U.S. Senate. They say more than 4 million ballots were cast, making this a record-breaking runoff election.

After working long shifts on Election Day, election workers were back at it Wednesday morning trying to finish the results.

The polls closed at 7 p.m. Tuesday night. Since then, Georgians and pretty much the rest of America have been watching the results closely.

Election leaders spoke Tuesday saying they were pleased with how the runoffs took place. Of course, it wasn’t perfect. Locally, we did see a few problems in Chatham County. Two polling locations were given permission to stay open a little later than the others due to a late start. Election leaders say it was because of some technical issues. But there were also some issues in the Atlanta area.

Wednesday morning, election workers across the state continued processing any remaining ballots. The Secretary of State’s Office is asking Georgians to be patient and kind as we get closer and closer to the official results.

Elections workers in Chatham County began around 10 Wednesday morning, beginning the count of absentee ballots that needed to be verified by the Registrars Office that didn’t make it over here last night.

They started with a batch of about 1,300 Wednesday morning, and over the course of the day received another 4,000 ballots. According to the Chatham County Elections Supervisor, Tom Mahoney, they anticipate they’ll be finished with everything in-hand, that means Election Day votes, early in-person and the majority of absentee ballots, by the end of business Wednesday.

“I can assure the voters that what we’re doing is we’re processing and then tabulating all of the votes as we receive them from the Board of Registrars,” Mahoney said.

So what will remain will be overseas and military mail-in ballots, as well as provisional ballots issued by the Registrars Office and Board of Elections to be processed by the end of business Friday. And Mahoney says that’s a small number that won’t have any sway on local or statewide results.

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