Equipment malfunction delays results for days
Last week’s presidential election was not only historic on a national scale but it will also long be remembered locally. The results of the Nov. 5 election in Jones County were not complete until the afternoon on Nov. 7 due to technical difficulties. When the results were totaled, it was confirmed that the race for the District 4 Commissioner’s seat was tied with both candidates having 1,612 votes.
The tie held until a military absentee ballot was hand delivered to the elections office from the Georgia Secretary of State’s office at 3:11 p.m., Friday Nov. 8. The ballot cast a vote for Martin, which gave him 1,613 votes.
The results of the election are not official until they are certified.
The problem with the totaling of the votes on election night first came to light when the tabulation of results began after the polls were closed. The absentee ballots had to be scanned first with a small scanner that was easily jammed, which meant feeding only small batches of the 864 ballots.
Jones County had a record number of early voters, totaling 11,780. The number of voters who waited to cast their ballots on Nov. 5 totaled 3,524.
Jones County has 21,092 active registered voters, and the total who voted in the election was 16,181 or 77 percent. That was a good turnout but not a record.
The first precinct to bring in their totals on election night was Pope at 8:06 p.m. All seemed to be going well until the memory cards from early voting were loaded.
The second card containing more than 4,000 ballots would not read. The second memory card was needed because the first card was full, which was a first in Jones County.
Election Superintendent Marion Hatton and Registrar Alyson Roney worked with the technician from the county and Dominion until 3 a.m., when they were told by the state to go home and start again Wednesday.
It was discovered Wednesday that there had been an error in creating the back up for the second card that corrupted both cards, and the ballots would have to be rescanned.
That meant another scanner was needed, which took another day.
Technicians from the Secretary of State’s office and Dominion arrived Thursday afternoon and were able to resolve the issues so the totals could be officially tabulated.
Despite the pressure, Hatton kept a positive attitude throughout the ordeal.
“I learned something new and do every election,” she commented.
Hatton and Roney had been hand adding results from the paper ribbons from the voting machines in each precinct. They were aware of the tied vote for District 4 but did not disclose their findings until the tabulations were officially completed Thursday afternoon.
Military absentee ballots are the only ballots that can be accepted until the Friday deadline. Hatton said she knew there were two military absentee ballots still out from District 4.
When there was not a ballot in the morning mail, the only chance was for one to arrive by courier.
Results
Jones County mirrored national results with Donald Trump easily the winner 11,079 to Kamala Harris’ 4,959 votes.
Republican candidate Austin Scott won the county’s vote for U.S. House District 8, and Dale Washburn easily took State House District 144.
Republican Ken Vance defeated challenger Floyd Griffin in Jones County for State House District 149, but Griffin prevailed across the district to take the seat.
The contest between West and Martin was the only contested county race. It was as close as it gets with Martin the winner by one vote. That means no runoff but the probability of a recount.
The two constitutional amendments and the statewide referendum were both passed by voters in Jones County. They did, however, say no to the Transportation Local Option Sales Tax with a margin of 8,229 to 7,093.
Jones County voters did say yes to package liquor sales in the county by a resounding margin of 9,705 to 5,748.
Complete election results for the county are also available on the Secretary of State’s website, sos.georgia.gov.
