Despite some technical glitches earlier in the day, Tuesdaynight’s vote-counting in the Republican and Democratic primarieswent relatively smoothly.

The counting process associated with the new touch-screenmachines allowed almost all ballots to be tabulated in less thanfour hours and outcomes of most races were known. The quick countwas a welcome alternative to some nearly all-night affairs thathappened during previous elections when paper ballots were used andcounted by an optical scanner.

Unfortunately, thanks to absentee ballots, Tuesday’svote-counting was still nearly an all-night affair. Whileapproximately 10,000 ballots were counted in less than four hours,it took nearly that long to count the remaining 770 or so paperabsentee or affidavit ballots.

The situation left only one race issue, who would be in the PostOne Constable’s runoff, in limbo. Had other races been closer,though, they also could have been affected and left voters havingto wait for the final outcomes.

Lincoln County was not alone in dealing with problems due toabsentee ballots. We have heard of similar difficulties inJefferson Davis County, and there were possibly others.

While the touch-screen machines have eased the voting andcounting process, it is now time for election officials to addressissues with absentee ballots.

Waiting for the final results Tuesday, we noticed that absenteeballots are folded several times before being placed in an envelopefor security.

Creases from the folding, though, make the ballots difficult toscan. Perhaps ballot-length envelopes could be found and used toremove the need for folding.

The timing of the absentee ballot counting – after all otherballots have been counted – is another issue. Perhaps absenteeballots could be counted in the downtime between when polls closeat 7 p.m. and when ballot boxes start to come in, usually about 15to 30 minutes later.

Some ballots Tuesday night presented problems because ofimproper markings and smudges. Surely some technology exists to setup one of the touch-screen machines to handle absentee voting.

Voting and vote-counting in elections have come a long way withthe new touch-screen machines. With the size of this year’sprimaries, Lincoln County’s party and election officials are to becommended for their handling of Tuesday’s contests.

Now if we can just tweak the system a little further to befinished before the early morning hours the next day.