First ballots counted

Volunteers opened the first batch of mail-in ballots for the Nov. 8 general election on Monday, Oct. 17, at the Supervisor of Elections Office.

Elections Chief Chris Chambless supervised four groups of three volunteers who opened around 5,000 mail-in ballots.

The office has sent out 37,000 mail-in ballots to Clay County voters.

Three volunteers handled each ballot. The first opened the envelope and removed its contents, the second removed the ballot from a privacy sleeve and the third unfolded the ballot and placed it in a stack.

The ballots are then run through a tabulation machine to count votes.

Elections office staff members verify the signatures on the mail-ins before volunteers open the envelopes.

Although mail-in ballots are the first to be counted, Florida law prohibits elections officials from disclosing results until after 7 p.m. on election day.

Volunteers sign non-disclosure agreements, promising not to talk about any election results or what they saw on ballots.

Heather Stewart, the office’s community services coordinator, said the mail-in ballots always remain under two-person control, meaning they are never left alone with less than two people present.

Oct. 29 is the last day to request a mail-in ballot, and they must be received by the elections office by 7 p.m. on election day for them to be counted.

Chambless said that for the Aug. 23 primary, 291 mail-ins were received by the office after the 7 p.m. deadline and were therefore rejected. An additional 17 were rejected because the voter did not sign the return envelope.  

Early voting begins on Oct. 28 and ends on Nov. 5.

On Friday, Oct. 14, the county’s canvassing board performed a logic and accuracy test on tabulation equipment.

The evaluation included running a set of sample ballots through the machines and comparing the machine results to a hand count.

Stewart said no problems were noted during the test.

Chambless, County Judge Kristina Mobley and Board of County Commission Chair Wayne Bolla make up the canvassing board.

However, Commissioner Jim Renninger sat in for Bolla during the logic and accuracy test.