Bollinger County ballot problems, large voter turnout force candidates to wait

Problems with the ballot counter coupled with an unusually large voter turnout kept candidates in Bollinger County on pins and needles waiting for results.

With four precincts counted and 10 waiting at 9 p.m., County Clerk Diane Holzum announced to the people waiting in the hallway that, "this is going to take a long time."

Only the presiding commissioner race and that of the circuit clerk were contested races. At press time, Republican Travis Elfrink was leading Democratic challenger Kenny Trentham 663 to 368. Jeaneal Vandeven was ahead of her Democrat challenger Cindy Yount for circuit clerk 588 to 471.

Holzum and her staff worked frantically to pass ballots through the counter, but a problem with the code on the ballots caused the counter to reject some of the ballots.

"It's not the counter, it's the ballots," she said.