Voting in the election is over, but “several hundred” provisional and remaining mail-in ballots must still be counted in Schuylkill County.

The county board of elections will count the provisional ballots Tuesday morning at the Schuylkill County Election Office.

Albert Gricoski, election director, said Thursday at least 50 mail-in ballots have been received after the polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday.

The deadline to receive mail-in ballots is 5 p.m. today.

Those ballots will be segregated because of a U.S. Supreme Court challenge.

All told, 69,824 voters exercised their right to vote this election. Of that number, 53,786 voted at one of the 125 precincts in the county, and 16,038 mail-in ballots were processed. There are 90,423 registered voters in the county.

He said he was impressed by the “big turnout,” which he estimated at about 80 percent.

“I was pleasantly surprised we had that well of a turnout in Schuylkill County. It was just the buildup on the national level that just led to a buildup of the votes,” Gricoski said.

Gricoski added, “16,000 ballots is a lot of manpower.”

He conceded there were some challenges Election Day.

Butler Township-Altamont, Gilberton, Hegins and Ryan Township ran out of regular ballots.

“It was hard to anticipate this much of a turnout for the election,” Gricoski said.

He said the office uses a formula to allocate the number of ballots given to each precinct that includes past voting patterns. Additional ballots were allotted to precincts to account for the increased interest in the presidential election, he said.

Thirty of the 125 precincts received more ballots than allotted initially.

“Most of them were more concerned they were going to run out, so we gave them additional ones,” Gricoski said.

For example, Ryan Township, which ran out of ballots and has 1,118 registered voters, received 650 ballots plus an additional 100.

Precincts also had 40 provisional ballots.

Rovers were dispatched throughout the county to deliver ballots to polling places in need. In addition to the ballot snafu, two polling places had malfunctioning machines that had paper jams that were fixed.

Gricoski said he appreciated the dedication of the voters and those who helped promote democracy. Asked if he would change anything, he said it’s possible.

“There’s always an improvement that can be made somewhere,” he said.