With less than ten days to go before the election, the Marion County Clerk is warning candidates that there are so many absentee ballots being cast this election season that it may take days to count the results and that could impact some close races.

In a certified letter to candidates on the ballot in Marion County, Myra Eldridge said her  office expects to receive approximately 70,000 absentee ballots, 400 percent more than any previous election where the ballots were counted in a central location.

Eldridge says she expects in person voting results to be done in a timely manner, however it’s possible that absentee ballots will not all be counted on Election Day.  She says her office and the Election Board will report the result the absentee ballots for the precincts that have been counted at the end of Election Day after that, absentee results will be reported daily.

This means if there is a close race in Marion County where absentee ballots could make the difference, the results may not be fully known until days after the election.