As of Nov. 9, officials at the Shelby County Election Commission had sorted and totaled the provisional ballots for two close races.
The SCEC had 1,888 provisional ballots for the Nov. 6 election. Of those, 75 were for the Germantown mayoral race, and 463 were for the Tennessee House of Representatives District 31.
Raw numbers were released Thursday, with 1,888 ballots received. These were made up of green provisional ballots, green ballots marked with a sticker and orange ballots.
Different types of provisional ballots included:
- Green paper ballot: People whose names could not be found on the voter registration rolls
- Green paper ballots marked with a sticker: People whose names were not found in the rolls and who also did not have a photo ID.
- Orange paper ballots: People whose names appeared in the registration records but did not have a photo ID.
- The Election Commission is now researching the ballots individually. Each ballot will be examined to ensure that it was cast by a voter registered in Shelby County. Every ballot cast by a duly registered person will be included in the final count. After researching the ballots, election officials will recommend whether to include it in the final vote count.
A Provisional Voting Board, made up of two Democrats and two Republicans, convenes after that process is complete and makes a determination, based on the staff’s recommendations for each ballot. The date of that meeting depends on when research of the ballots is completed.
“This process takes time, so it will be days before the cumulative totals for each race has been determined,” said Linda Phillips, administrator of elections for the Shelby County Election Commission.
Election results will not be final until they are certified by Election Commissioners on Nov. 26.
