Chance Election results tonight won't be conclusive

San Juan County Elections

Of the more than 11,000 ballots sent out for the April 23, 2013 mail-in election, 5,349 or 44.7% have been cast as of Monday, April 22.

The ballots deposited in ballot drop off boxes on Orcas and Lopez Islands have not been collected since April 12 and won't be collected until 8 p.m. April 23. So those votes won't be tabulated Tuesday.

There were approximately 800 ballots total collected from those drop boxes on April 12. That was nine days after the ballots were mailed to voters.

At this time, Monday afternoon, the Elections office plans to count those votes on Thursday, April 25 and release a new result which includes all votes received at the end of the day Thursday. If the Tuesday night results are close, the Elections Office may process the uncounted ballots on Wednesday.

The returned ballots are processed daily during the  election. Signatures  are verified and then the votes are counted by the machine. The results are not known until the button is pushed after 8 p.m. on Election Day.