2020 VISION

Indecision Nationally, Hand Sanitizer-Soaked Ballots Locally

More than 13,000 Fayette County citizens cast a ballot in this year’s general election. Nearly 72 percent of those voted early or with an absentee ballot.

On Election Day, Nov. 3, 3,678 showed up to the polls in person. But all of the ballots get counted on election night.

Fayette County Elections Administrator Terri Hefner said election night went fairly smooth besides a few “hiccups.”

The battery went out in the County’s ballot scanning machine at one point Tuesday night Hefner said the manufacturer was able to quickly provide support and get the device up and running again.

In addition, she said election workers had to manually count dozens of ballots that the scanner could not read. In some cases, Hefner said hand sanitizer was at fault.

“So many ended up getting smeared because of hand sanitizer that the optical scanner could not read them,” Hefner said. “I guess that’s the nature of this particular election. Overall, things went very well considering all the angst and things people were worried about.”

Hefner praised her staff at the elections office and the County’s team of election judges that staffed each of the 26 voting precincts.

“Our election judges did a tremendous job,” Hefner said. “When their materials came in, it was in such good order. We could not do what we do without the judges we have out there working.”

William Bernsen, an election judge from Plum, said Hefner and her staff deserve praise as well.

“They need credit, too, and Terri specifically for her leadership,” Bernsen said. “I’ve been an election judge for a long time, and this was the smoothest election I’ve been a part of. That’s saying a lot considering all the extra stuff they had to do this year. The instructions were better, the whole process was better. Since she has taken over in that office, every year it has improved.”

Coincidentally, the day after the election, Nov. 4, was Hefner’s birthday.

“All I wanted for my birthday is for this election to be over,” Hefner joked.