Kent County Clerk: 100% of precincts reported results earlier than expected

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — In Kent County, officials said they're in good shape and finished counting ballots early Wednesday morning.

The Kent County Clerk and Register of Deeds Lisa Posthumus Lyons said they finished counting ballots around 4:50 a.m.

Posthumus Lyons said it was earlier than she expected after estimating it would take around 24 hours.

Kent County saw a 59% voter turnout which was a little less than the midterm election in 2018 where they saw 62%.

The majority of voters this year also voted in-person with 60% of people going to precincts and 40% casting their ballots via absentee.

Like any election, Posthumus Lyons said it wasn't perfect.

"We did see the issues with our website going down," said Lisa Posthumus Lyons, the Kent County Clerk and Register of Deeds. "Also, we had ballot shortage in one of our jurisdictions. These are nothing that you know, nothing that we weren't prepared to handle, should that should it occur. We were able to get ballots out to deliver to that precinct those precincts without interrupting the voting process. We all So had some ballot misreads with a tabulators or jams, sometimes that happens," she said.

She added, "We always have our election results posted online. Our interactive map, the real time results get posted. That website admittedly went down around midnight, and we were able to find a temporary solution while we work to restore that website. We have an election results Summary page that indicates that individuals the public and campaigns can go to to get those results in all of these elections," said Posthumus Lyons.

Posthumus Lyons said while there were a few issues, nothing jeopardized the security and integrity of the election.

As a reminder, these election results are unofficial until the Kent County Board of Canvassers certifies the results.

They're expected to go through those starting Thursday at 9 a.m. It is open to the public.