Water leak, influx of ballots delays Fulton election results

According to Fulton County, the absentee ballot count was delayed at least two hours due to a water leak early morning Nov. 3.

At around 6:07 a.m., the staff at State Farm Arena notified Fulton County Registration & Elections of a water leak affecting the room where absentee ballots were being tabulated. 

Within 2 hours, repairs were complete. The county says no ballots were damaged, nor was any equipment affected. There was a brief delay in tabulating absentee ballots while the repairs were being conducted.

Tonight Fulton County will report results for around 86,000 absentee ballots, as well as Election Day and Early Voting results. These represent the vast majority of ballots cast within Fulton County.

Fulton Voter Registration manager Ralph Jones spoke to the board Tuesday night, saying the results will come in later than the county expected. 

By 5 p.m., Fulton had scanned 86,191 of the 130,517 absentee-by-mail ballots received, which doesn’t include the ballots received in today’s mail.

Elections board member Mark Wingate told reporters he believes the county won’t have definitive results until later this week. Fulton County Director of Registration and Elections Richard Barron said they will stop counting absentee ballots at 10:30 p.m. Nov. 3, and resume in the morning. 

"Fulton County is committed to ensuring that every vote is counted and will comply with all applicable laws and regulations," the county said in a news release.