Adair County’s trouble-free Election Day ended with a very long ballot-counting night. Voting closed at 7 p.m., and unofficial results were not released until 12:38 a.m. the following day.
Though voting in years past yielded results by 10 p.m. the same night, the delay in this years’ results could be due to new hires and slow machines. Adair County had a 66.29% vote for Donald J. Trump and Kamala Harris had a 32.46% total vote.
Adair County Clerk Sandra J. Collop said voting during Election Day went quite smoothly Nov. 5. Students who are registered in Adair County and live on campus were able to vote in the Student Union Building, and those who are registered in Adair County but live off campus could vote in their precinct. Collop said voting in the Adair County Courthouse was limited to students who were registered in their hometown, but still wanted to vote Nov. 5. Those students could go to the Courthouse and re-register themselves so they could vote in Adair County. Collop said there was no fear of voter fraud from county officials, and there were no calls from worried residents. Collop said this could be due to Missouri’s strict voting laws.
Though voting ended at 7 p.m., any voter who was still in line by that time could carry out their vote.
MACC student, Baylee Gashwiler said, “I mean, it’s pretty chill. I mean, it’s a little stressful just because of the candidates and how much each one of them can impact [the United States]. Especially for me since I don’t have that many strong political views.”
Gashwiler said she thought this election was way more intense than other elections partly because this is her first presidential election.
Poll worker Linda Buckallew said the voting worked very well, and students were all very prepared.
“We have always had an issue down there because they change dorms or their address is different from the last time they voted,” Buckallew said. “But they were on top of it this time. I mean, they came in equipped with their drivers licenses.”
Buckallew said the fact that only residents could vote in the Student Union Building cut down the number of voters.
Buckallew said there is much more paranoia in this election as opposed to years past.
“We really had no problems [today] everything went smoothly,” Buckallew said.
Absentee ballots were available six weeks before Election Day, and they closed at 5 p.m. Nov. 4. After voting closes Nov. 5, the ballots are then taken to the Adair County Courthouse to be counted.