NATCHEZ — The ballots have been cast and the results are in — officially.

On Nov. 17, Election Commission Chairman Larry Gardner and his staff completed the certification process for the 2008 presidential election.

“It’s done,” Gardner said.

Last Monday, was the deadline to have the election certified and those counting the votes took all the available time they could, Gardner said.

Gardner said the results could have been tallied sooner but due to the high volume of absentee and affidavit ballots — more than 2,200 — the votes were checked and then double-checked.

“We made darn sure it was all done right,” he said.

Adams County Circuit Clerk Eddie Walker said double checking the votes was important, because while some of the votes had to be disqualified, the clerk’s office wants every possible vote to be counted.

“We don’t want to disenfranchise any voters,” Walker said. “We want to make sure that if they voted, it can be counted.”

And while there weren’t many, Gardner said, some votes could not be counted.

There are several reasons votes cast in the 2008 election could have been disqualified.

Gardner said some voters who said they were registered to vote actually were not registered, some voted in a precinct other than the one in which they live, others incorrectly completed the absentee ballots and some voters that voted were convicted felons and their votes could not be counted.

Of more than 2,200 absentee and affidavit ballots, approximately 60 could not be counted.

“That’s a pretty low percent,” Gardner said.

Those voters whose votes could not be counted will be notified by mail in the coming weeks.

Aside from unusable votes, both Gardner and Walker said the election — one of the most popular in years — went very smoothly.

“It went great,” Walker said. “I couldn’t be more proud of the office.”