By SABRINA GARRETT
The Wilson Post

PROVISIONAL BALLOTS WILL BE COUNTED
Results from the Nov. 6 election will be certified and provisional ballots counted and the results released during the Wilson County Election Commission meeting to be held at 3 p.m., Friday, Nov. 16, at the Election Commission office.

The provisional ballots are especially important in the Lebanon Special School District race with only nine votes separating longtime Board of Education member Steve Jones and retired educator Johnie Payton. Unofficial results showed Jones with 4,585 votes to Payton’s 4,576 votes.

Phillip Warren, administrator of elections for the Election Commission, said there are 165 green provisional ballots and 21 orange provisional ballots.

“There are two kinds of provisional ballots,” Warren explained. “The orange ballot means that you are a registered voter, you just forget your photo ID. Some people will get all the way through the line on Election Day, but maybe left their ID in their car. This way they can vote, then show their ID (at a later time.)”

The green provisional ballots are for those who the Election Commission and volunteers could not find in the system. “In a lot of cases, it turns out that those don’t count,” he said. “Having provisional ballots gives us time after the excitement of Election Day to determine which voters are supposed to be there.”

Because of the high number of provisional ballots, the State of Tennessee issued an extension to count provisional ballots to election commissions statewide.

Results from today’s meeting will be posted on www.wilsonpost.com.

Staff Writer Sabrina Garrett may be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .