Volume of write-in votes slows counting

Election workers had to punch each ballot that contained a write-in vote.
LISBON -- More than 3,000 write-in votes slowed tabulation of Columbiana County's races until most registered voters were sound asleep.
The final results of Tuesday's election were counted at 1:21 a.m. Wednesday.
John Payne, the director of the board of elections, said the late count was "exclusively" the result of the large number of write-in candidates and the large number of votes cast for them.
There were 14 write-in candidates who received a total of 3,042 votes.
Lois Gall, the board's deputy director, said that normally there are only one or two write-in candidates each election.
"In the over 13 years I've worked here, it's the most [write-in] candidates and the latest I've ever worked," Gall said.
This election is the last time the county will use its punch card system. Next year, it will join larger counties that are already using faster electronic voting machines that can scan write-in votes.
Laborious process
Election workers had to check every ballot in a precinct that had a write-in candidate and hand-punch a hole for any write-in votes before running them through the ballot counter.
The board started the night with three teams of workers sorting the ballots but shuffled workers to create four teams to try to speed the counting.
Payne also said that the addition of write-in candidate Larry Long's name in five precincts in the East Liverpool school board race was apparently the result of confusion by unknown individual voters. Payne said he had discovered Long's name had been handwritten on the printed list of candidates and issues in five of the district's 19 precincts. Long did not win.
It's happened before in other races, Payne said.
Payne noted that defacing a ballot is a fifth-degree felony, but he does not expect any legal action. He and poll workers erased or covered Long's name.
wilkinson@vindy.com