Bismarck Tribune

By LAUREN DONOVBy LAUREN DONOVAN

Mercer County was last, but hardly least, in Tuesday's election results.

Auditor Monte Erhardt said the logjam of mail-in votes coupled with a swell of walk-in voters at the Stanton courthouse put the county in the unenviable position of being the last to report in.

"It's not a lot of fun," he said.

If nothing else, a long night that didn't end until the sun came up was a learning curve for Mercer County, among 21 counties to experiment with mail-in balloting.

In the meantime, a close statewide race for insurance commissioner couldn't be called until Mercer County's 4,660 votes were added to the total. That didn't happen until about 9 a.m. Wednesday.

Erhardt said he'll likely convene two election boards, rather than one, if the county decides to continue with mail-in voting in subsequent elections.

Counties could convene two election boards - one for walk-in voters and one to deal with mail-in votes - or use one board for both, said Deputy Secretary of State Jim Silrum.

Mail-in ballots can't be opened by anyone other than an election board on election day, even if the ballots come in weeks early.

Erhardt said he anticipated enough lulls in the walk-in voter action to give the board time to wade through the 3,879 votes that were cast by mail.

It didn't turn out that way, with nearly 800 people making their way to the courthouse in an election that everybody wanted to participate in, some the "old-fashioned" way by casting a secret ballot in person.

Instead, Erhardt said the election board couldn't turn to all the mail-in ballots until after the poll closed at 7 p.m.

Mail-in ballots require cross-checking signatures with the original application, filling in the poll books and sorting ballots by precinct before they can be electronically tallied.

Erhardt said the election board "worked its butt off," into the wee hours to reconcile mailed votes to cast votes.

Silrum acknowledged the mailed ballots are much more labor intense.

"There's far more paperwork," with the mail-in ballot, Silrum said.

Still, Erhardt said he favors mail-in voting because it gets people involved in the election process.

Thursday's blizzard could have just as easily struck Tuesday and the right to vote doesn't depend on the weather with a mailed ballot, he said.

Silrum said it seems there's always one county that has some kind of trouble on election night. While it would be great to get all results before "the 10 o'clock news," it hasn't quite worked out that way, he said.

He said no other counties that had mail-in balloting had the same problem as did Mercer County, but every county is different and some counties, though not all, used two election boards, he said.

Silrum said the secretary of state's office will look at the situation and see about recommending any changes.

"If lack of staff was all it was, that can be dealt with," Silrum said. "Maybe it's as simple as that. I do believe we have the tools in place to get results by 10 p.m."

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 888-303-5511 or lauren@;westriv.com.)