VENANGO CO., Pa. (EYT) — Most local officials in our area were optimistic on Tuesday afternoon regarding how long it may take to count the record number of mail-in ballots for this election.

(Photos by Dave Cyphert of ProPoint Media Photography)

“We are extremely busy, but we’ve gotten all of the mail-in ballots scanned except for those still coming in today,” Melanie Bailey, Voter Registrar for Venango County, told exploreVenango.com on Tuesday afternoon.

According to Bailey, officials at the election office were working hard Tuesday to fulfill emergency ballot requests, many from individuals who had been hospitalized recently, as well as answering phone calls and double-checking voter registrations.

Despite the business of the day, Bailey said things were running smoothly, and they hadn’t received word of any major issues or complications.

As far as turnout goes, Bailey said they didn’t have much information as of Tuesday afternoon, but had received word of long lines for voting at Sandy Creek and Cranberry, as well as some other precincts.

According to an election official in Forest County, the election board there was hard at work processing the approximately 800 mail-in votes received in Forest County and had no concerns about getting them finished in a timely manner.

High turnouts and optimism were reported in Clarion County on Tuesday, as well.

“We’re in our pre-canvass stage now, opening envelopes at this point,” Cindy Callahan, Director of Elections for Clarion County told exploreClarion.com on Tuesday afternoon.

“We’ll continue through the evening with that. We don’t really know how long it will take. It’s hard to tell because this is a first for us, to be doing this on Election Day.”

While Callahan didn’t have an estimation of how long the process may take locally, she remained optimistic that it would not be a problem.

“We’re just moving along doing what we have to do.”

Callahan noted the Clarion election office was extremely busy on Tuesday, answering calls and making sure the process was running smoothly across the county.

“You get a lot of the same things, people going to the wrong polling place or calling to double-check where they’re registered.”

According to Callahan, while busy, the day was going smoothly, with very few hitches beyond a few jammed ballots that were resolved quickly.

“Things are just moving along.”

Callahan also noted that they had received reports from multiple precincts about lines out the doors.

“That’s a good sign our percentage (of voters) may be up. It sounds like there was a lot of interest,” Callahan said.

“We just need the voters to have patience with the process because this is a new process for us and for the voters, and we all have to have patience with each other. Our phones have been tied up a lot, but we’re doing our best to get back to people and answer questions as quickly as we can. We just need people to bear with us and have patience.”