A whirlwind week completed for County Election Board

Nov. 7—Election week kicked off with storm damage in Stephens County and once the running began, it never really stopped for election board workers.

This year, early voting for the presidential election had one extra day. The extra day of early voting, the storm damage, final preparations for the big day and then finally, Election Day itself, kept election board and poll workers extremely busy, according to Stephens County Election Board Secretary Shawnda Seely.

The first day of early voting, Seely said wait times stayed about an hour-and-a-half to two hours long. A total of 954 voters cast ballots Wednesday, Oct. 30.

Numbers increased Thursday on the second day of early voting, with 1,042 casting ballots, and again Friday, the third day, with 1,075 voters making their selections. On Saturday, 678 more added to the total, bringing the number to 3,749 voters who cast their ballots early.

Compared to previous elections, the numbers varied slightly but were still similar, Seely said. In 2020, with three days of early voting, there were 3,109 voters who showed up to the polls early.

Once early voting concluded, it was a full 12 hours of bustling polls on Election Day.

"This years' election was very similar to the 2020 voter turnout with 2020 having about 400 more voters at just over 19,000," Seely said. "Both of these were up from the 2016 election which totaled less than 18,000. Presidential elections always have a significantly larger turnout than other elections."

Absentee voting seemed similar when it came to numbers, Seely said.

"In our county, early in-person absentee voting, again was very similar to 2020, but those numbers doubled from 2016," she said. "We have made a lot of adjustments in handling larger numbers of voters during early voting and at polling places. At times voters waited up to two hours, but the line was moving steadily the whole time.

Overall, Seely said she felt like election day went well in Stephens County.

"We had extra officials in all of the larger precincts and in the office helping answer phone calls," Seely said. "Most calls were from voters wanting to know where their polling place was located. We completed check-in and finished up reports before 10:30 p.m."

Paul Ziriax, Oklahoma State Election Board secretary, said the election Tuesday was "one for the history books."

"Unofficial results show that more Oklahomans cast a vote for president than any previous election," Ziriax said. "Voters set a new record for in-person early voting by more than 120,000. We also had the largest number of registered voters heading into this election since we began tracking this statistic in 2000."

Ziriax, the top election official in Oklahoma, said he is "proud of the Oklahomans who exercised their right to vote in this election" and grateful for those who worked the election.

"I am deeply grateful for the poll workers, county election officials, and State Election Board employees who worked so hard to make this election possible even with heavy turnout and despite the storms that ravaged parts of our state in the days before the election," Ziriax said. "Our election officials are thankful to local, state and federal law enforcement officials for their efforts to keep everyone safe during the General Election."

The rest of this week, Seely said, will consist of processing the precinct registries, researching provisional ballots cast and completing the certification on Friday. Election results won't be finalized until then.