PERRY, Ga. — The results are in for the races in Houston County, but that was not case Wednesday morning.
Andy Holland with the Houston County Board of Elections says their machines flagged close to 500 absentee ballots for stray markings or write in candidates that they had to verify individually.
"By Election Day, we did have 90 percent of our ballots actually scanned," Holland says. "It's basically 20 percent of the county voted by mail."
Andy Holland with the Board of Elections says they finished scanning ballots collected from drop boxes around 1 p.m. on Wednesday.
Then, the Vote Review Board arrived.
"Our vote review panel is going to adjudicate the ballots that need adjudication and then we will be able to start reporting the results from the absentee by mail ballots," Holland says.
The Democrat, Republican and Board of Elections representatives had to verify stray marks, write in candidates or incorrectly filled bubbles.
"Whoever that person is, that mark exactly matches what the intent of that voter was," says Henry Childs.
This is the second year Childs has been a part of the review board and he says it takes just a minute to go through each ballot.
"Each member of the panel has to agree that that is exactly what the voter meant."
They finished going through those ballots around 5:45 Wednesday night, with final results posted soon after.
Childs says he wants Houston County voters to know they take this process seriously.
"They can be confident of their vote. We do everything to make sure that your vote counts."