Heavy voter turnout marred the election day process in Clermont County this year, once again setting the tabulation of results behind by hours.

After posting results for 197 of the 200 precincts at 9:55 p.m. on election day, the Clermont County Board of Elections was not able to post the final three precincts worth of results until shortly after 2 a.m. the following morning. Earlier in the election day process, word was released that heavy turnout had swamped polling places and consumed available democratic ballots, leaving some voters waiting.

“We’re not running out, but we’re running short of democratic ballots in some precincts,” said Clermont County Board of Elections Deputy Director Judy Miller. “We’re taking ballots out to them. The changeover from republican to democrat and the number of independents wanting democratic ballots has been overwhelming. It far exceeds our projection of 35-40 percent. No one will be disenfranchised, because we have the ballots to take to those polls. We can print extra ballots here.”

Miller said that a high turnout was muddling efforts early on, forcing some precincts to deal with ballot shortages by lunchtime.