SIDNEY — Shelby County voters flocked to the polls Tuesday to cast their votes for who they think will be the next president of the United States.
“We’ve been really busy,” said Dawn Billing, Shelby County Board of Elections director.
Billing said she’s not surprised by the voter turnout.
Polls closed at 7:30 p.m. and before the ballots were voted, workers at each precinct had to reconcile the paperwork before heading into Sidney and the Board of Elections.
Of the 26,164 registered voters in Shelby County, 14,405, or 55.06 percent, cast their votes at the poll. There were 11,734 Republican ballots cast, while on 2,531 Democrat ballots were cast. Fourteen ballots were cast by Green Party voters. There were 126 nonpartisan ballots cast.
Absentee voters played a role in the results for Shelby County, said Christopher Gibbs, Shelby County Board of Elections chairman.
“We have twice as many absentee ballots cast this year as we did in the 2012 presidential primary,” said Gibbs.
The absentee ballots were counted at 7:30 p.m. as soon as the polls closed, said Gibbs.
“There were 1,537 absentee ballots cast,” said Gibbs, which included walk-in voters, applications that were mailed and sent back to the board of elections.
Of those cast, 1,119 were Republican ballots, there were 375 Democratic ballots, one Green Party ballot and 42 ballots which were issues only.
“We have 68 ballots that were sent out and haven’t been returned yet,” said Gibbs. “If they are postmarked by March 14 and received in our office by March 25, then they will be counted.”
The Board of Elections will certify the results on March 28 at 7 a.m.
