FAYETTEVILLE -- Washington County election officials added 732 ballots to the total cast in Tuesday's election, but the additional votes didn't change the outcomes of the races.
"The numbers changed a little but the winners didn't," Bill Ackerman, a member of the Election Commission said Friday after the newly accepted provisional ballots were counted.
The updated results show 94,713 ballots were cast. The county has 140,744 registered voters so the turnout now sits at 67%.
The updated vote totals are still unofficial. The commission will meet Friday to certify the election results.
Voters were given provisional ballots if there were questions about their voting status. Some may not have had the required ID, others may not have had current voter registration and others requested an absentee ballot but then decided to vote in person.
Jennifer Price, executive director for the Election Commission, said about 300 military ballots are still out. Military ballots postmarked on or before Election Day can be counted if they are received by Nov. 13. Price said there is no way to know how many of those ballots will be returned.
Another possible source of additional votes will be determined when the Election Commission meets at 9 a.m. Thursday for provisional ballot hearings. Voters who cast provisional ballots that were not counted, but who feel their votes should be counted, will have an opportunity to appeal the decision to the commission.
The counting of the 732 ballots Friday was delayed somewhat when the county's new vote-counting machine didn't work. The county has a new DS450 ballot-counting machine from Election Systems and Software that was being used for the second time in the Nov. 3 election. The machine also was used in the Aug. 11 special election. Price said the machine didn't work well in that election either.
The ballots were tabulated using a pair of older DS200 machines. Price spent some time on the phone with an ES&S representative, trying to correct the problem but was unable to resolve the problem. She said the new machine is much more sensitive than the older models and that may be causing problems with ballots that have collected dust and dirt while being handled.
"I think the 450 may be a little too sensitive," Price said.