The counting of votes from Tuesday’s general election in Barton County lasted well into the night. Harried county election officials holed up in the back room at the County Clerk’s Office until the final unofficial totals were tallied and posted online at about 11:30 p.m. 

As the tally was completed, an apologetic County Clerk/Election Officer Donna Zimmerman said there were delays. These came mainly from collecting and securing the ballots from the two drive-by drop-off ballot boxes and the counting of nearly 2,000 write-in votes in the Barton County attorney race.

She and her weary staff could hardly be faulted. The above holdups and a heavy voter turnout swamped the well-prepared office.

All things being equal, “I think things went well,” Zimmerman said. “I have no complaints.”

More advance voters

With 40 of 40 voting precincts reporting, 10,942 of the 16,473 registered voters in Barton County cast ballots. That was a voter turnout of 66.42%.

Of the ballots, 5,700 were cast early or advanced (3,261 mail advanced and 2,439 in the Clerk’s Office) and 5,242 cast at polling stations on election day. These total the 10,942.

These numbers will likely change, she said. Her staff has to process mailed ballots that were postmarked by Tuesday, but received after that.

And, the totals are unofficial until the County Commission meets as the Board of Canvassers Monday morning. The canvass will cover the provisional ballots, those cast in the wrong polling places, by voters who moved within the county or changed names, or who were not registered properly.

“This was an all-time record for advance voting,” Zimmerman said. The number of early voters surpassed those who voted on election day.

A smooth election

“I’m kind of surprised we didn’t hit 70% turnout,” she said. Had Tuesday voting numbers kept pace with the advanced, this would have been the case.

As it was, though, this was among the best turnouts she’s seen.

The early voting stretched Zimmerman’s office as far as it could go. Between more voters, more staff on hand and all the COVID-19 protective measures, the office was crowded.

However, she said sometimes turnout numbers can be deceiving. Depending on how recently the voter rolls have been purged, there may be voters who have moved, but have not been removed from the list.

Still, the election ran smoothly, Zimmerman said. There were a handful of complaints from Hoisington voters who said they waited in line for a while, but some more signage should resolve those issues come the next time around.

“We were lucky the weather was nice,” she said. And, we are also fortunate we don’t live in a state where counting is continuing.