Final results for Vanderburgh Co. election are in

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) - Over 22 hours after the polls closed, the Vanderburgh County election results are in.

Officials say there were a considerable number of votes that still needed to be counted as of 10:00 p.m. Tuesday night.

Voters picked a new County Commissioner Republican Amy Canterbury. She ran against Democrat Hope Fussner.

Canterbury finished with 41,699 votes and Fusser finished with 29,762 votes.

As for Vanderburgh County Council, Republicans Ed Bassemier, Joe Kiefer II and Jill Anne Hahn have won.

Bassemier led with 35,027 votes, Hahn was next with 33,099 votes and Kiefer II received 33,659 votes.

For the Vanderburgh County Coroner, Republican Bryan Underwood won the election. He was up against Democrat Keith Mosby Jr.

Underwood won with 39,879 votes over Mosby Jr., who finished with 31,851 votes.

Both Amy Devries and Terry Gamblin won for Vanderburgh County School Board District 3. They ran against Joshua James Taylor Barnett.

Devries won with 30,063 votes, along with Gamblin who finished with 28,273. Joshua James Taylor Barnett received 22,488 votes.

The long delays can be attributed to high turnout and slow machines. More than 74,000 people cast ballots in Vanderburgh County. Clerk Marsha Barnhart says they only have two machines to process the votes, and both of them are relatively slow.

“People that don’t understand the system are writing all kinds of things on social media,” Barnhart said.

According to Barnhart, a bipartisan election board made the decision to stop counting votes Tuesday night, knowing it would take nearly eight more hours to reach the final results.

“The people who have come up with all these theories about why we didn’t get the votes counted, and the truth is we just ran out of time,” Barnhart says.

The counting process resumed early Wednesday morning.

All uncounted ballots were locked in a tub. Both Republican and Democratic leaders had locks that they put on the container. That was then locked in a secured room that was under constant video surveillance overnight.

Wednesday, independent election workers from outside Vanderburgh County resumed their work, running ballots through machines.

Those ballots were verified, and copied, in the case that a recount is needed. Once the votes were confirmed, the election workers tabulate the results and enter them into the count.

Barnhart says it’s currently a very slow process. She says they have faster machines, but state law requires them to use the slower ones.

“We’re going to put together some suggestions for our state legislators that we can do to speed up the process,” Barnhart said.

As for Election Day, Barnhart says things ran smoothly. The only issue came with absentee ballots. She says between 19 and 30 voters who requested absentee ballots never received them through the mail. Those voters signed affidavits at polling locations to be able to cancel the absentee ballot request and vote in person.

Click here to see the full list of the Indiana General Election results.

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