Boone County turnout falls short of forecast; 500 provisional ballots left to count
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The vote went smoothly overall Tuesday in Boone County despite some issues caused by the humidity, County Clerk Brianna Lennon said Wednesday.
Boone County voters cast nearly 91,000 ballots, which is about 68% of the county's 134,000-plus voters. Lennon said about 500 voters also cast provisional ballots, which will require verification before they can be counted.
"We did see some issues with the ... humidity and paper, don't mix that well," Lennon told ABC 17 News live Wednesday morning. "So we did occasionally have some times where we had some ballot jams, but they were cleared. Our election judges did a fantastic job. I'm really proud of them. They were all back here by 8:45 and we've been, we processed results as they came in as quickly as we could."
Turnout was short of the projected 70%-75% in Boone County.
Lennon said the 500 provisional ballots will be reviewed and counted in the next couple of weeks and military ballots will continue to come in this week.
Boone County voters came out heavily for Democrats in the election. Stephen Webber won the 19th Senate District, which covers the whole county. That takes the seat out of Republican hands.
Democrats Gregg Bush and Adrian Plank won in Boone County's 50th and 47th House Districts, respectively. However, Republican John Martin won over Dave Raithel, who made headlines for a fight with a critic at a local fair over the summer.
The county supported Democrats for president and statewide offices, too. However, those votes all went to Republicans overall.
Boone County voters also supported Amendment 2, which would legalize sports betting, and Amendment 3, which enshrines abortion rights into the state constitution. Amendment 3 is projected to win statewide but Amendment 2 remained too close to call Wednesday morning.
Proposition A, which will raise the minimum wage and require paid sick leave, also won big in Boone County and is projected to win statewide. Boone County said "yes" to Amendment 7, which will ban ranked-choice voting in the state.
County voters went against Amendment 5, which would allow for a casino to be built at the Lake of the Ozarks, and Amendment 6, which would establish court fees to pay retirements for prosecutors and sheriffs.
