Today is the deadline for county clerks to get their official vote totals from November 7th filed with the Secretary of State. But a lot of counties are pushing the deadline. Some counties have struggled with the high number of provisional ballots they had to use this year or the high number of absentees cast because of the tight U. S. Senate race and the ballot issues… Spokesman Stacie Temple with the Secretary of State’s office says some counties just wait until the last minute. She says about one-fourth of the counties have until 5 p.m. to mail them in or deliver them to the state election office. The Secretary of State has until December 13th to canvass the results and certify them as the official returns. But Temple says the staff is going to try to get that done by the 29th. Temple says the Secretary of State is generally satisfied with the various mechanical systems used throughout the state this time. She says some county clerks that ran out of ballots in some precincts can avoid the problem in 2008 with some more careful planning.
