As election day waned into the evening, Wood County Board of Elections officials were breathing a sigh of relief.
“It’s been an amazingly smooth day,” said Terry Burton, director of the board of elections.
Part of the reason for the lack of bumps was the push for early voting this year.
“We took a ton of pressure off the polls,” Burton said.
As of Monday evening, more than 40,000 votes had been cast in Wood County – 19,296 by early voting, and 20,742 from mailed in or dropped off ballots.
Wood County currently has 93,230 registered voters. In the last presidential election, 64,826 people voted in the county – just under 70% of the eligible voters.
Despite concerns across the nation of intimidation at the polls, Burton said there was no report of problems of that nature reported to the board of elections. There were a couple candidates who objected to campaign signs they felt were too close to the polling sites, but poll workers checked on them and found most were in compliance.
Both the Bowling Green Police Division and Wood County Sheriff’s Office were on standby for any problems, but neither was called to polling places.
Concerns about a shortage of poll workers also did not materialize, Burton said. The board was actually able to over-staff voting locations, he said.
“We over planned, and over planned, and over planned,” he said. “And it paid off.”
