News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Putnam County Election Commission officially certified the results of the August 4th election at its meeting Wednesday morning.
Commissioners went through each candidate both from a state report and precinct reports to verify all votes. Commissioner Amos Powers said the process is important to ensure the integrity of elections.
“So that people have trust in the system,” Powers said. “So they trust that when they go cast their vote that 1. It’s counted and then we have those in place to make sure that yes it is counted and these are the true, accurate results of the election.”
Administrator of Elections Michele Honeycutt said this election cycle went very smoothly with no issues, which she attributes to a lower voter turnout. She said they’ve already met the 45-day deadline to certify absentee ballots, which are typically never completed by the time of certification.
Honeycutt said now the focus turns to the November election. She said state and federal general elections typically run more smoothly because of shorter ballots, however, there are some local votes set to be on the November ballot.
“And right now as far as the county we will have the Register of Deeds office on there,” Honeycutt said. “There’s a potential for two other ones. The 9th District County Commission will be on there, and Algood is working on a referendum for wine in grocery stores. Their deadline to meet that is August 25th. So if they meet it, and they have enough signatures, that’ll be on there.”
Election Commissioner David Dukes said while the process to certify elections is extremely important, it is also extremely tedious.
