Mayor’s race: Absentee ballots to be counted tomorrow morning

Work said a state-mandated audit, where inserted ballots are manually re-checked of 3 percent of the machines used in last Tuesday’s vote will also happen on Wednesday. Work said.
Candidates and their lawyers are allowed to observe the process, as are members of the press. Work said the results of Wednesday’s count will not be formally released by the board until the election is certified; if absentee ballots are challenged, that will push back certification until a judge rules on the ballots’ validity. “The judge is not going to appreciate specious arguments about whether you count ballots,” Work predicted. “If they checked off the right boxes on the absentee ballot application, and then they voted, and they didn’t make any mistakes on the ballot and they dated it on time and signed it on time and postmarked it on time or it was received in our office on time — because they can hand them in if they want — there’s very little to challenge.”
Candidates are, of course, free to tell anyone about the count results, “but just remember, anything they tell you is unofficial,” Work said. “And incomplete, by the way.”
In the Republican race, Polacco said he concentrated on collecting absentee ballots as he predicted — correctly, it turns out — the race would hinge on them. Work said there’s nothing illegal about a candidate delivering absentee ballots to a voter, and then delivering them to the elections board. The signature on the ballot will be checked against the voter’s signature on record, Work said. “If it doesn’t match, it’s going to get challenged.”