Washington Evening Journal
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Jefferson County election results were later than other counties
Andy Hallman
Nov. 5, 2020 12:00 am
FAIRFIELD – Jefferson County saw a larger number of people go to the polls this year than four years ago.
The Jefferson County Auditor's Office reported that of the 10,962 registered voters in the county, 9,002 of them (82 percent) cast ballots in this year's general election. That's an increase from the percentage who did so in 2016 when the figure was 78.5 percent.
Jefferson County Elections Clerk Abbie DeKleine said more than two-thirds of the votes in the county were submitted absentee, a total of 6,166. The absentee ballot board begins counting the ballots the day before the election on Monday and finished its count Tuesday night.
The auditor's office announced the unofficial results from its 12 precincts at 11:30 p.m. That was more than an hour later than some surrounding counties such as Davis, which was among the first in the state in announcing its results, shortly after 10 p.m. DeKleine said small counties with fewer precincts to wait on have an easier time counting all their votes and publishing their results sooner. She said the vote counting went smoothly in Jefferson County, it was just that there were so many absentee votes to count.
'Almost 6,200 ballots is a lot to get through in just two days,” DeKleine said. 'We couldn't start counting them until Monday.”
DeKleine said absentee ballots take longer to count than in-person ballots. The process for counting them involves removing them from their envelope, removing them from their secrecy envelope, then mixing them together so the members of the absentee ballot board do not know whose ballot corresponds to the envelope they came in.
The Iowa Secretary of State's website published partial results from Jefferson County around 10:30 p.m., showing about 2,500 votes had been cast. DeKleine said that figure was derived from 11 of the 12 precincts (the Packwood precinct was still out) and that initial figure only included Election Day ballots, not absentees.
The early returns that did not include absentee votes proved to be misleading in at least one race, that for Jefferson County Supervisors, which showed Republicans Dee Sandquist and Nick Adam in the lead with just under 1,500 votes each, and Democrat Susie Drish in third place with about 900 votes. When the dust settled and all votes had been counted, Drish jumped into second place just one vote behind Sandquist who had 5,088 votes. This means Drish will join Sandquist on the board.