MONTGOMERY, AL - Secretary of State
Beth Chapman announced an uncertified total of provisional ballots being
reported from all 67 counties today. The uncertified total is 1,790,
which is less than the total in the 2006 Primary Election when there were 2,376
provisional ballots cast. In 2006, 829 of those provisional ballots were
counted as legitimate ballots. “Provisional ballots will play a vital
role in determining the final numbers of the vote totals this year for the
gubernatorial and other primary races statewide,” Chapman said.
Nell Hunter, who is the state’s
longest serving registrar and serves the state’s largest county, said that her
provisional ballot total is 308. She says this is typical for Jefferson
County and that they were processing the ballots quickly. “We should have
no problems with counting this number of provisional ballots as we do for every
election. The number of this year’s provisional ballots is very closely
aligned to elections in the past. This is nothing we haven’t seen
before,” Hunter said.
At this time, there is no way to
know to which candidates to attribute these ballots or to which party.
That information will be forthcoming from the counties as they verify and
process the ballots that should be legally counted.
Chapman said that provisional
ballots will be counted in each county on June 8. After the provisional
ballots are counted, each county executive committee of the political parties
will certify the county-level election results. The chair of each county
executive committee must then certify those results to the chair of the state
executive committee not later than noon on June 9. Not later than noon on
June 11, the state executive committees of the political parties must meet at
the State Capitol to certify and declare the election results for all
offices. Then, not later than June 17, Secretary Chapman must certify to
the counties the names of all candidates who will be on the ballot for the July
13 primary runoff election.
“The candidates are anxious
and want the elections officials to count ballots quickly, as do we. Most
importantly, we want them to take the time to ensure that it is accurate,”
Chapman explained. “The counties do an excellent job of managing
elections at a local level for the citizens of this state. Every job and
every vote is extremely important as we have definitely seen with this
election,” Chapman said.
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