Mail-in ballot counting begins in Escambia County

In a nondescript warehouse along West Navy Boulevard, the voice of the people has begun to be tabulated.

The Escambia County Canvassing Board began its work with the help of several election workers Monday to begin counting vote-by-mail for the Aug. 20 primary .

The vote-by-mail ballots begin early to ensure that an unofficial result can be announced to the public on election night. Election results are considered unofficial until the canvassing board certifies them, which for the Aug. 20 primary will happen on Aug. 27.

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Escambia County Supervisor of Elections Robert Bender said they have received nearly 7,000 mail-in ballots so far, which is about 3.45% of Escambia County voters.

"We may or may not get through all of those today, we'll see," Bender said.

Bender said the number is about 25% of the total mail-in ballots sent out to voters for the Aug. 20 primary. Bender added not all the vote-by-mail ballots will be returned.

"A few years ago, we sent out 47,000 vote-by-mail ballots, and only about 20,000 came back for the primary," Bender said.

Bender said he expects most of the vote-by-mail ballots to come in closer to the primary.

The ballots are processed with a flurry of activity by election workers as a machine opens each envelope to allow a worker its contents. Workers count each ballot, a "privacy sleeve" that covers each ballot and envelope. All the counts must match before the ballots are taken into an adjoining room, where they are tabulated by machine. The ballots are tabulated a second time by another machine made by a different manufacturer. That second count is used to audit the results of the first official count.

Bender said it's the first year they're using the second machines that the state mandated after the 2020 election. By law, Bender said only 10% of the count must be audited. However, he said they are auditing 100% of the count.

The vote counts from Monday are locked out until the day of the election. Bender said not even he could see the results.

Anyone wanting to watch the canvassing board work in hopes of getting a sense of where the vote was going would have a tough time as any glimpse of a ballot would be fleeting. The workers themselves try to avoid looking at the front of the ballots. The only votes that can be known for sure are ballots that cannot be read by the machine for one reason or another and must go in front of the canvassing board.

In the first batch of about 300 votes, only three ballots couldn't be read by the machines, and the canvassing board had to certify the creation of duplicate ballots that could be read by the machine in their place.

Each ballot is read and the three-member canvassing board made up of Bender, Escambia County Judge Barry Dickson and Escambia County Animal Welfare Director John Robinson, must affirm the duplicate ballot is accurate to the original. All discussions on the canvassing board are recorded by microphones in the room.

In the case of the three ballots, all were all from District 3, two Republican and one independent. The votes came out as two for U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, one for U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, one for Gaetz's opponent Aaron Dimmock and three votes for ECUA District 3 board member Larry Williams.

Early in-person voting begins in Escambia County on Aug. 10.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Mail-in ballot counting begins in Escambia County