HOLLISTER
Due to a large turnout and inability to start tabulating results until 7:30 p.m., the elections department will be slow in posting results for the county, head elections official Joe Paul Gonzalez told the Free Lance.
Gonzalez said one of the problems is there have been “so many ballots. Coupled with the counting machine not being available until the evening, it caused the delay in results being released. Had the ballot machine been ready earlier, many of the 7,000 vote-by-mail ballots could have been processed.
With the amount of ballots, Gonzalez said the turnout is “way over 70 percent” and he expects it to be higher than 80 percent.
The ballots are being tabulated, but Gonzalez expects it to be a late night. The election will be over for him and the elections department when he gets the all clear from the secretary of state.
