http://ozarkspub.vo.llnwd.net/o37/KSMU/audio/mp3/electionni_2248.mp3
You went out and voted yesterday, and in record numbers. The polls were exceptionally busy, but after they closed at 7, the Greene County Courthouse was just getting started on the long night ahead. KSMU's Emily Nash describes what last night was like at the courthouse.
After all the votes were cast Tuesday, the Greene County Courthouse became one of the busiest and most important places of election night.
Once you vote in your specific precinct, the courthouse becomes headquarters delivering the results.
Around 7:30, right after the polls closed, workers from the 83 precinct of Greene County began to bring their ballots into the courthouse to be verified.
Darlene Caster from the clerks office explains this process.
By around 8 the courthouse atrium was filled with long lines, mounds of paperwork, and stacks of heavy boxes.
Local Boy scouts from Troop 7 were waiting at the doors of the courthouse to carry the heavy ballot boxes to one of the six verifying stations.
Precinct representatives described what it was like at the polls while waiting in the long lines.
Jorene Howard was working the polls at Cooper Tennis Complex Tuesday.
Eli Reynolds from the Second Frankfort at Pleasant View School precinct said this year's election had an amazing turn out.
According to Greene County Clerk Richard Struckoff, there was a 56% voter turn out.
This is a new record for Greene County.
Once each precinct results were verified, they were run down the hall to a central counting machine in the county clerk's office.
By 9:15 over half the ballots were counted and tentative results started coming in.
The counting process has become significantly faster throughout the years because of the new Optical Scanners.
These scanners count each ballot as its cast during the day, and saves the clerks from hand counting each ballot.
Around 10:30, almost all the precinct had been processed and tallied and the courthouse began to slow down.
You would think with such a large voter turn out this year there would be lots of problems.
But those who worked the polls, said this year's voting process went exceptionally smooth.
Only one precinct had a ballot discrepancy and will require a recount.
Greene County Clerk Richard Struckoff gave me an idea of how he felt the night went.
"I thought it went very well..."
The clerks office will pick one other precinct at random to recount by hand in the next few days.