Oklahoma Officials Finish Counting, Certifying Votes

As many other states are still counting votes, Oklahoma’s results are set to be certified.

Almost all of Oklahoma’s ballots were counted by 10 p.m. Tuesday night. Some were set aside for verification of the voter and those were counted Friday.

The final votes to be recorded from Tulsa for the 2020 general election are the provisional ballots. They are cast on election day then held without being counted, so the board could make sure they should be counted.

"You fill it out, they send it in, and our team goes through each and every provisional ballot,” Gwen Freeman with the Tulsa County Election Board said.

On election night, the provisional ballots are kept separate, in bright colored bags so they're not mixed in. They come with paperwork from the precinct that describes the issue, which is usually a problem with a voter not having ID or showing up at the wrong precinct.

In Tulsa County, 266,164 voted in the presidential election. There were also 1,272 provisional ballots held for verification. The board accepted just 528 of those, rejecting the rest.

While at the polls, voters picked a president, but the choice was really about presidential electors. Republicans picked Ronda Vuillemont-Smith to vote in the Electoral College.

"I'm not going to change my vote,” Vuillemont-Smith said. “It goes to Donald Trump. He won Oklahoma, and he gets my vote."

Since President Trump won the state, the Democratic Electors won't get a chance to vote, but Eric Proctor said he's not disappointed.

“In a representative democracy, the person who gets the most votes should win the office, whether that's state legislature, governor, or president of the United States,” Proctor said.

The provisional votes will be added into the totals finalized Friday. Just over 69% of Oklahoma's registered voters cast ballots in this election.