Erie County Elections Office holds late night to process thousands of ballots

The Erie County Elections Office put in some late hours Tuesday night to process thousands of ballots to call races for Election Day.

After the polls closed at 8 p.m., Erie's 149 voting precincts brought the votes to the election office, forming a long line outside of the elections office.

The last precinct in Corry brought their ballots in around 11 p.m., but the election officials had gotten a head start earlier in the day processing mail-in ballots.

And despite issues with mail-in ballots leading up to the election, Erie County Clerk Karen Chillcott told us Election Day went smoothly.

"We started at 7 a.m. with 34,500 mail-in ballots, that's an 82 percent return rate on those mail ballots. Previously, we had a big concern about those ballots not getting in the hands of voters on time, but it looks like by and large, they did," said Chillcott.

Chillcott added everything at the polling sites went smoothly as well, opening right on time and getting all the ballots back.

Erie County saw a total voter turnout of 73% with 42,000 mail-in ballots received.