08/06/2026
Thank you to every voter and election judge that made Tuesday a successful election! Boone County saw record primary turnout before AND on Election Day, but the work doesn’t stop when the polls close. We wanted to share a glimpse into the post-Election Day process as we work towards certifying the August 4th primary. If you have any burning questions, drop them in the comments, reach out to us at [email protected], or even better, sign up to be an election judge for future elections at vote.boonemo.gov!
1. Reconciliation
On election night, election judges at each polling place reconcile the number of ballots cast with the number of voters checked in that day to ensure they match. They also note the number of provisional ballots cast, as well as any ballots that were cast, but could not be counted by the tabulator. This can be for a variety of reasons, but is usually because a voter made a mistake on their ballot (like an overvote or extra pen mark) and either left the poll before ensuring their ballot was accepted by the tabulator or did not have the time to spoil their ballot and mark a new one.
2. Tabulation
Once the paperwork is complete and the supplies are packed up, election judge supervisors bring the voted ballots and tabulated results (stored on a USB stick) back to the Clerk’s Office.
The USB sticks, provisional ballots, reconciliation paperwork, and any ballots that could not be counted by the tabulator at the polling place are brought to the Counting Room in the Clerk’s Office and accepted by a bipartisan team that remains in the Counting room throughout election night. This team observes as we load the USB sticks into the tabulation software on a computer that is not connected to the internet.
At the end of the night, the bipartisan team in the Counting Room counts the number of provisional ballot envelopes and the number of uncounted ballots from the polling places. The tabulation of these ballots is the responsibility of our certification team, whose work begins after 12pm on Friday.
3. Inventory
Between the end of the election and the beginning of certification, our staff inventories and reviews the supplies and paperwork that comes back from the polling places in preparation of the certification process. Voted ballots are stored in sealed bags, organized by polling place, and locked in our office vault.
4. Certification
During the certification process, bipartisan teams tackle five important jobs:
1) They review provisional ballot envelopes to determine if the ballot should be accepted and counted or rejected;
2) They count the ballots from polling places that could not be counted by the tabulator;
3) They process and count any military and overseas ballots that arrived after election day, but before 12pm on the Friday after the election;
4) They conduct a hand-count audit of the ballots from 5% of our polling places; and,
5) They conduct a post-test of the tabulators that were used on Election Day by running a test deck of ballots through each one to ensure they tabulate accurately.
This process can take several days, but once all five jobs are complete, the bipartisan teams sign off on the election results and the election is officially certified.
For the August 4, 2026 primary election, 62 provisional ballots were cast, 18 ballots could not be counted by the tabulator at the polling place, and (as of Thursday, August 6) 3 military and overseas ballots have been received since Election Day. At this time, 82 military and overseas ballots are out-standing so it is still possible that we receive a few more before noon on Friday. Our certification process will begin at 1pm and is open to the public and press.
