Absentee voting sets record in Sheridan County

By shortly before 4 p.m. Tuesday, nearly 7,800 absentee ballots had been returned to the office of Sheridan County Clerk Eda Schunk Thompson.

Thompson said that included both ballots returned by mail and those cast during early voting at the courthouse. She said that is definitely a record for the county.

Thompson’s office accepted absentee ballots until the polls closed at 7 p.m. Tuesday, so the count was bumped even higher by the end of the night.

In addition, she said, while she hadn’t been to any of the polls herself, she was hearing from both election judges and voters that the polls were busy. She said long lines were reported Tuesday morning.

What she expected was to hear by the end of the week that the voter turnout was high this year.

The vote count on Tuesday night is considered unofficial, and won’t be official until the county vote canvass. Thompson said that will begin at 10 a.m. Thursday in the county election office. Results of the county canvass will be submitted to the Secretary of State’s office, which will conduct a state canvass next week.