By Kristin Bednarski
Sun staff
Clermont County had a good turnout and a smooth Election Day Nov. 6.
“It was about as good as we could have ever hoped for,” Clermont County Board of Elections Director Judy Miller said. “We were elated that the election went as well as it did.”
Miller said the voter turnout for Clermont County this year was comparable to the 2008 presidential election.
According to unofficial election results, 94,106 ballots were cast on election day from a total of 132,697 registered voters in the county.
“We had a little more early voting,” Miller said. “I think that was due to extended hours in the evening and being open the Saturday, Sunday and Monday before.”
Miller said that they were taken aback by how many residents came to vote early on Sunday and especially on Monday before the election.
“Sunday we were surprised and Monday we were really surprised,” Miller said. “Approximately 650 people showed up between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. Monday.”
Miller said things went well at the 200 precincts throughout the county on Nov. 6.
Poll workers at Batavia Township Community Center, Batavia High School and Union Township Civic Center said the stream of voters was pretty constant throughout the day.
Larry Vaughn, a poll worker at Batavia Township Community Center, said they were busy all morning on election day.
“I expected it to be like this,” Vaughn said. “I am glad to see it is like this.”
Vaughn, who has been a poll worker since 1994, said things went smoothly during the busy morning hours at his precinct.
“Everyone works together well,” he said.
Allen Holmes, a poll worker at Batavia High School, also said turnout was steady all morning.
“Everyone has been fine, they have known what to do,” Holmes said.
Holmes said the election was only his second election working at the polls. He said the Clermont County Board of Elections had training sessions for all poll workers prior to the election.
“Training was good,” Holmes said.
Miller said once the polls were closed Nov. 6, counting the ballots went pretty smoothly back at the board of elections.
“We had all of our precincts reported by 9:15 p.m.,” Miller said.
She said they only had a couple of hold-ups this year, including a couple of machine and disk malfunctions that required them to re-enter ballots, as well as a number of absentee ballots to count that came into the office just before the polls closed.
All in all, Miller said, they were only about an hour behind on getting all the unofficial results released.
Miller said poll workers, rovers, part-time workers, and many individuals from several county offices came together to help process the entire election.
“It was a tremendous amount of teamwork that made us have a very exemplary election,” Miller said.
Miller said moving forward, they will begin evaluating reviewing and counting provisional ballots. She said official results will be released at the board of elections certification Nov. 27.