4,000 remaining absentee ballots being counted in Fulton County
ATLANTA - Around 4,000 outstanding ballots remain in Fulton County as of Thursday morning, election officials say.
The remaining absentee ballots are being counted at State Farm Arena.
Officials told Good Day Atlanta's Marc Teichner ballot counting for Fulton County is expected to be completed by 10 a.m. on Thursday.
Fulton County brought in temporary workers who spent the overnight hours counting absentee ballots in a final push to reach the finish line.
"We are going to get to a conclusion probably by the time the sun comes up," Fulton County Registration and Elections Director Richard Barron said.
The counting process has suffered a few setbacks including issues with ballot counting machines, worker fatigue, and a pipe bursting.
Officials in Fulton County had previously resumed counting tens of thousands of absentee ballots at State Farm Arena Wednesday morning after a delay caused by the pipe burst.
"At approximately 6:07 a.m., the staff at State Farm Arena notified Fulton County Registration and Elections of a water leak affecting the room where absentee ballots were being tabulated," a statement sent to FOX 5 from Fulton County reads in part. "The State Farm Arena team acted swiftly to remediate the issue. Within 2 hours, repairs were complete."
As of 7 p.m. on Wednesday Fulton County Elections officials said 30,000 absentee ballots were not processed due to a pipe burst. Officials reassured voters that none of the ballots were damaged and the water was quickly cleaned up.
But the emergency delayed officials from processing ballots between 5:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m.
Officials say they continued to count beginning at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The statement from Fulton County continues:
"Tonight, Fulton County will report results for approximately 86,000 absentee ballots, as well as Election Day and Early Voting results. These represent the vast majority of ballots cast within Fulton County.
"As planned, Fulton County will continue to tabulate the remainder of absentee ballots over the next two days. Absentee ballot processing requires that each ballot is opened, signatures verified, and ballots scanned. This is a labor-intensive process that takes longer to tabulate than other forms of voting. Fulton County did not anticipate having all absentee ballots processed on Election Day."
Officials said they will work to ensure every vote is counted and all laws and regulations are followed.