DaytonDailyNews.com

DAYTON — Election results are rolling in to the Montgomery County Board of Elections at a faster rate than expected, said director Steve Harsman, and the record turnout has presented no major problems.

"This has been a wonderful election," Harsman said at 9:15 p.m. Tuesday. "It's going to be a record turnout, and at this state it doesn't appear that the paper ballots were used as heavily as thought."

Harsman said a spot check of some early Dayton and Riverside precincts showed that only about 20 percent of the voters had pulled paper ballots, nothing close to the 50 percent number election officials had feared. Paper ballots take much longer to tabulate because they have to be removed by hand from envelopes and then scanned through machines.

Harsman said poll workers had already brought in close to 20 percent of the precincts by that time, and he hoped to have half the ballots counted by 11 p.m.

In addition, he said, the early voting seems to have been a success and prevented problems on Election Day.

"We were anticipating long lines during that after-work rush, but we just didn't experience that," Harsman said. "We had our standard paper jams and other issues, but right now as I stand here, this is just about as close to a perfect presidential election as we could have run."

Still, he said, it could be mid-morning before all the votes are counted.

Voter protection advocate Ellis Jacobs agreed that the election has gone well in Montgomery County.

"Our complaint calls dropped off dramatically in the afternoon and evening," said Jacobs of calls to the Miami Valley Voter Protection Coalition. "I think the decision to go to early voting is looking better every moment, when you think about Election Day going as smoothly as it did."

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2393 or kmccall@DaytonDailyNews.com.