TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Today many hotly contested races across Florida and Georgia will be decided.
Across Florida, voters have already turned out in record numbers during early voting.
And once the last ballots are cast, the work doesn't end for some.
WTXL ABC 27's Jada Williams details how the Leon County Supervisor of Elections works to tally the votes and bring you the results.
Once that last ballot is in, there are 863 poll workers and many more involved in the process to count, then double check, every single vote regardless of how it was submitted.
They move like a well-oiled machine tabulating the ballots.
They're counting those votes you cast today as well as provisional ballots.
The process starts with counting the paper ballots. Then it moves to an electronic system that double checks what the workers counted.
And in Leon County, there's an extra audit step to ensure accuracy. Mark Earley, the Leon County Supervisor of Elections, tells us about it.
"We will actually audit every single ballot, every single oval on the ballots, whether it was filled in or not to verify the tabulated result, and just validate in a transparent fashion for our voters that we're getting the right results," he said.
While a result may come in tonight, the official result that goes to the state isn't due until Friday.
A key factor this year that should help the Supervisor of Elections office get those finalized numbers more quickly is that more than half of the voters have already cast their ballots.
And remember, the polls open up at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.
