Ninety minutes after Georgia polling places closed, the process of counting votes kicked off at the headquarters of the Chatham County Elections Board.
Like every election, the count from the county’s 88 precincts presents a logistical challenge. But the choreography of well trained professionals presented a portrait of quiet diligence and professionalism.
Officials at each of precincts gather all paperwork, ballots and equipment and transfer them under police escort to the headquarters of the Board of Elections and the Board of Registrars. Once there, 40 temporary election workers check those boxes in.
Next, early voting results scroll down an eight-foot video screen erected at the head of the basketball court-sized room. Nine temporary workers wearing luminescent green vests remove absentee ballots from envelopes to prepare them for counting. Nearly 5,000 absentee ballots had to be sorted Tuesday night.
Adjacent to those workers, in four rows of black folding chairs, sit a dozen election observers, poll watchers from both major parties, and folks from non-governmental organizations like the ACLU. On Tuesday night, several fidgeted. Some looked at their phones. Mostly, they appeared bored.
Nearby, behind a glassed in section of the room, one technician inserted data cards containing Chatham’s voting results into a computer and uploaded them to the Secretary of State’s office in Atlanta. Another technician, meanwhile, scanned hand-marked absentee ballots sent in by mail.
Thomas Mahoney III, chairman of the elections board, said Election Day passed without incident in Chatham. The voting has gone “smoothly,” he said. “We’re not aware of any significant problems.” Now, it’s just a matter of counting the more than 110,000 ballots cast by Chatham voters.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has promised to deliver all of Georgia’s voting results by midnight. Mahoney said he hoped the night would end earlier.
