Tarrant County is almost done counting election ballots, and Biden is still winning
Mail-in ballots were still being counted Friday evening in Tarrant County, but election officials said they were optimistic they could wrap up the work by the end of the day.
The workers have been checking mail-in ballots around the clock for about 72 hours, since the polls closed.
“I’m hopeful we can end (Friday), even if it’s late,” said Heider Garcia, Tarrant County election administrator. “I hope I can be home for dinner.”
As of 4:30 p.m. Friday, the elections office still had not posted updated figures on Tarrant County races. A day earlier, Garcia had estimated that about 15,000 mail-in ballots remained to be counted.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden was still leading President Trump in Tarrant County, 403,698 to 403,271, according to a cumulative report.
Even after the mail-in ballots are counted, Tarrant County will still have to work through about 12,000 provisional ballots, Garcia said.
Workers will have until Nov. 17, when the Tarrant County Commissioners Court will be asked to certify the election results, to verify those provisional ballots. However, Garcia said, state law allows the ballots to be reviewed during business hours, rather than 24-7 as the mail-in ballot processing has worked.
Provisional ballots are cast when a voter’s identity or registration can’t be verified at a polling place. Problems can include a misspelled name on a registration form, or the lack of a voter’s name on registration rolls.
In those situations, voters cast a provisional ballot, which is then reviewed and researched by election workers, and either rejected or added to the voting totals.
“We’ve got to do them one by one, check the records, pull their file,” Garcia said.
