By Melanie Patterson

The North Jefferson News



The municipal elections are now official.

On Tuesday, municipalities in north Jefferson County canvassed the votes from the Aug. 26 elections.

The Alabama Secretary of State’s office required municipalities to canvass votes on Tuesday and to certify new or returning mayors and council members who will begin their terms in November.

Officials said the week delay was to give the Jefferson County Board of Registrars office plenty of time to determine whether provisional ballots could be counted.

In previous elections, the results have usually been certified the day after an election.

City and town councils adopted resolutions on Tuesday that included updated numbers from last week’s elections after provisional ballots and absentee ballots were all counted.

The updated counts did not change any results from local elections.

In north Jefferson County, the governing bodies in Gardendale, Morris, Kimberly, Warrior and Trafford all canvassed their elections Tuesday as required.

The city of Warrior had four provisional ballots, Kimberly had nine absentee ballots and Morris had no provisional or absentee ballots.

The Trafford Town Council held its meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, so information was unavailable by press time about Trafford’s provisional and absentee ballots.

Town clerks had until noon the day after the election to get provisional ballots to the Jefferson County Registrars Office.

The registrar’s office then had until noon Tuesday to determine whether the provisional ballots counted.

The office would not allow provisional ballots to count if, for example, the voter turned in the ballot past the deadline or if it determined that the voter lived outside of the district in which he or she was voting.