Calhoun County Republican primary election counting continues early Wednesday morning

Volunteers are still counting Republican primary ballots early Wednesday morning as the process stretches hours beyond when polls closed.

As of 4 a.m. Wednesday, March 4, no Republican primary totals had been released. Republican ballots are being counted by hand while Democratic ballots were tabulated by machine.

Polls closed at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Early voting ballots began being counted at 7 a.m. Tuesday morning.

Early Democratic primary results were released Tuesday evening. A total of 725 early and absentee ballots were cast locally in the Democratic primary.

In the race for county judge, Allen Tippit received 591 votes. In the County Commissioner Precinct 1 race, Mark Gonzales received 158 votes.

Republican ballots continued to be counted by hand at the Calhoun County Courthouse overnight.

At approximately 3:15 a.m., Calhoun County Republican Party representative Russell Cain provided an update on the counting process and the challenges faced by volunteers.

“We had 120 people come to the training session to help us with this, to count the ballots. But not all the people showed up,” Cain said. “Probably about 50 people showed up.”

Cain said at least 80 volunteers were needed to properly conduct the hand count.

“All the precinct chairs and everybody that worked the election, I'm proud of them and they've done well,” Cain said. “We weren't expecting this. They were so excited to come and count the election and the ballots. But here it is, 3 a.m. in the morning, and we're still not finished.”

According to Cain, volunteers present will continue counting ballots through the early morning hours.

“We have dedicated workers there. There's about 25 of them over there, and I have been here since right after 6:30 a.m. this morning. All I can say is that God is good and he's keeping me going,” Cain said. “I'm hoping we'll be finished before 7 a.m. But the only way we could stop and not try and finish this is a court order, but I don't want to wake the judge up. We're supposed to run the election and get it done. All these candidates, they want to know where they stand or where they are.”

Election officials said the count must continue until all ballots are completed. 

We will update as soon as totals are released.