Election results remain uncertain in Elmore County as officials prepare to conduct a formal hand count of every ballot cast in the county after discovering around 300 uncounted ballots.
The discovery could potentially flip results in multiple races across the county, where many contests were decided by fewer than 100 votes.
WATCH | When to expect Elmore County’s recounted ballot results—
Elmore County Clerk Shelley Essl noticed something seemed off with the total number of ballots tallied in the middle of last week.
"It seems as though we found it was some kind of a procedural issue between the ballots scanned and then the actual final results," Essl said.
In Elmore County, ballots are impounded and turned over to the sheriff's office after being counted on election night. That's where officials located about 300 ballots that were never counted on election night.
"The ballots were never missing. It's not like on Wednesday, we found a pile of ballots. That's not what it was. All of the ballots were accounted for," Essl said.
The uncounted ballots came from a combination of a few precincts, according to Essl.
The results from the roughly 300 votes could impact any race in the county, with many decided on fewer than 100 votes.
In Glenns Ferry, just 23 votes could change the mayor-elect, and 16 votes could shift who serves on the city council. A school district trustee race could also change.
In Mountain Home, 90 votes could alter the makeup of the city council, and 21 votes could reverse the approval of the school district's $3 million bond.
For the Bruneau-Grand View School District, these votes could impact a trustee seat and make or break whether Bruneau Elementary School stays open.
In the small town of Atlanta, just 3 votes could decide a fire district commissioner race.
The county now plans to hand-count every ballot on Monday to prevent ongoing tally issues.
"That's my big focus is to make sure that everybody's vote counts, and so that's why I'm doing the hand count to make sure that there's eyes on every single one of the votes, to make sure that they all count," Essl said.
The formal hand count will start Monday morning. The Secretary of State and the Attorney General will oversee the process, with results expected by the end of the day.
