SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Minnehaha County election staff wearing gray shirts inserted ballots into a voting tabulation machine during the late afternoon June 7.
As of about 4:40 p.m. today, around 4,200 absentee ballots had been tabulated in the vote tabulation machine. Only a few remained to be counted.
They were tabulating the absentee ballots, which had been counted earlier that day. Workers said they had counted about 4,200 to 4,500 absentee ballots as of about 2:45 p.m., which they said was the bulk of the ballots.
The vote tabulation machine resembles a stainless steel copy machine and, if you are old enough, a hybrid mimeograph machine.
Ballots are fed into one end of the machine and come out another end.
The votes are being tabulated in the county commissioners meeting room. There’s a bank of windows in a hallway across from the desk where the commissioners sit. Those windows serve as the public observation area during elections.
A row of chairs sits up against one wall in the hallway. Those chairs face the voting tabulation machine.
Inside the commissioners room, four members of the county resolution committee sit ahead of the bank of windows. When there is a question about a ballot, the resolution committee members are consulted.
County auditor Ben Kyte said votes are inserted into the machine by precinct. About 200 ballots are inserted at one time. The machine can count at a rate of about 250 ballots per minute, Kyte said.
Election staff operates the vote tabulation machine in shifts.
At around 4 p.m. Kyte said the second shift of vote tabulators was working.
The vote tabulation would be in full swing again when the polls close at 7 p.m. CT.
