Jackson County, Ore. — As election day is getting closer, the Jackson County Elections Office says nearly 40% of people have already turned in their ballot, and election workers are now counting them.
Jackson County Clerk Chris Walker says it’s the next step in the process before the ballots go through a system to see how people voted.
“This is still a preliminary process before your ballot actually goes through that tabulation equipment to actually give results,” Walker said.
The two-person mixed party affiliation boards physically take the ballots out of their envelopes and count them in batches of around 250 ballots.
But while workers are counting ballots that have already been cast, Walker says they’re still receiving calls from people who are currently voting and making mistakes on their ballots.
“We can always do a replacement ballot,” Walker said.
Walker says if voters make an unintentional mark, they can either make it clear on their ballot of who they actually want to vote for, or they need to bring their ballot into the election office to get it replaced.
However, that only applies to those who haven’t already cast their ballot.
“Once you cast your ballot, your ballot is cast. We cannot retrieve that back and let you re-vote that. In oregon, you cannot change that vote,” Walker said.
The process of tallying how citizens voted starts Thursday morning.
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