Macon is still waiting for the final results from the June 9 election. Here’s why:

Macon-Bibb County voters are still awaiting the official election results nearly a week after the June 9 election.

The Macon-Bibb County Board of Elections released preliminary results the night of the election with around 8,000 absentee ballots left to count, but the official results have been lagging behind due to technical issues.

Mike Kaplan, the chairperson of the Macon-Bibb County Board of Elections, said when 289 people were mailed incorrect absentee ballots in May, the Board of Elections had to create a new database to ensure those voters received the correct ballot. Voters who requested a Republican ballot in Congressional District 2 received a ballot for Congressional District 8.

The new database includes 20 voting precincts from Hazzard 4 to Warrior while the original database includes 13 precincts from Hazzard 3 to East Macon, Kaplan said.

Other counties in Georgia, such as Chatham County, are facing the same issue with trying to merge the two databases, he said.

Dominion Voting Systems, the company that sold the new voting machines to the state of Georgia, is working to merge the two databases in order to get an official vote count, Kaplan said.

“We’re kind of at the mercy of Dominion waiting for them to merge our two databases together. They’re having an extremely difficult time with that,” he said. “We would’ve been done if we had the old system.”

Kaplan said the absentee ballots that were quarantined on the night of the election have been adjudicated and counted. The final step is to merge the database, which Kaplan estimated would happen in the next day or two.

The deadline to certify the election results is June 19, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.

Some poll workers struggled to operate the new machines the morning of election day, and some ballots were also printed on paper so thin it the voting machines couldn’t automatically tally them. Long lines weren’t reported in Bibb County, however, as they were in Atlanta metro polling places, where lines stretched blocks and lasted deep into the night.

Although the official results have not been released, voters can apply for an absentee ballot for the runoff election on Aug. 11. The deadline to apply for an absentee ballot is Aug. 7.

Candidates for the county races will compete in the runoff if they didn’t receive 50% of the vote.

Here are the current results for the Macon-Bibb County contested elections.

Mayor

• Lester Miller: 16,511 votes

• Cliffard Whitby: 10,456 votes

• Blake Sullivan: 5,222 votes

• Larry Schlesinger: 4,552 votes

• Marc Whitfield: 1,773 votes

Macon-Bibb County Commissioner, District 1

• Valerie Wynn: 3,294 votes

• John M. Adams Jr.: 1,456 votes

Macon-Bibb County Commissioner, District 2

• Paul Bronson: 1,774

• Weston Stroud: 1,096

Macon-Bibb County Commissioner, District 4

• Mallory C. Jones III: 3,671 votes
• George Thomas: 1,272 votes

Macon-Bibb County Commissioner, District 5

• Seth Clark: 1,619 votes

• Carlton Kitchens: 1,261 votes

• Erion Smith: 999 votes

• Louie Hargrove: 226 votes

Macon-Bibb County Commissioner, District 6

• Raymond Wilder: 2,322

• Robert Abbott: 1,236

• Donald L. Druitt Sr.: 574

Macon-Bibb County Commissioner, District 7

• Bill Howell: 2,088 votes

• Bonnie H. Thompson: 1,292 votes

• Tim Rivers: 860 votes

Macon-Bibb County Commissioner, District 8

• Virgil Watkins Jr.: 1,805 votes

• Stacy R. Jenkins: 521 votes
• Michelle Parks: 364 votes

Macon-Bibb County Commissioner, District 9

• Al “Tiger” Tillman: 2,268 votes
• Brendalyn Bailey: 1,151 votes

Macon-Bibb Board of Education, District 1

• Myrtice Champion Johnson: 2,437

• Tera Edwards: 2,103

• Michael McKeever: 958

Macon-Bibb Board of Education, District 3

• Kristin C. Hanlon: 3,448

• Larry J. Tard: 2,223

Macon-Bibb Board of Education, District 4

• Juawn Jackson: 3,777

• David Sumrall: 3,350

Macon-Bibb Board of Education, District 5

• Sundra Woodford: 3,682

• Jill Thomley: 1,428

Macon-Bibb Board of Education, District 6

• James Freeman: 5,152

• Albert Hall: 1,945

Macon-Bibb Water Authority, District 2

• Desmond Brown: 4,661

• Mike McIntosh: 1,646

• Merritt Johnson III: 1,557