Chester County’s Department of Voter Services reports that the vote computation process from Tuesday’s primary election continues to run smoothly with all precincts accounted for and only provisional and military/overseas civilians’ ballots still to be counted.
“We prepared for this election for many months to ensure every citizen in our county not only knew their vote would be properly counted but that the election was secure,” said Chester County Director of Voter Services Karen Barsoum. “Every aspect we designed and every improvement we made came to fruition.
“The larger envelopes for mail-in and absentee ballots worked. No envelopes were cut by the OPEX machines. We had more than enough County employees helping us on every shift. I could not be prouder of our staff as well as all the poll workers and judges of elections.”
Any mail-in ballots that were deemed questionable, meaning Voter Services staff were unsure if they should be counted, were placed on legal hold and reviewed at specific times – 9:00AM, 1:00PM, 5:00PM and 9:00PM on election day, and 9:00AM Wednesday, May 18. These times were set so that interested parties could be on hand to review ballots and determine whether they would appeal decisions made by Voter Services regarding ballot count.
The return board (also called computation board) met on Friday morning to begin the computation stage and begin determinations on provisional ballots. Tuesday is the last day for the County to receive military and overseas ballots. They will be counted if they were postmarked by May 16.
“The feedback on the process from every witness on site was positive. People were able to see, review, and hear us explain every step of the way. The new expanded space worked very well to do everything in a more efficient manner. We will continue to use these same updated procedures in November because they worked so well,” added Karen Barsoum.
To see the latest returns, please visit https://pennsylvania.totalvote.com/Chester
