It's normal to continue counting votes after Election Day, elections administrator says

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- With democracy still in action, Harris County's newly appointed Elections Administrator wants you to remember that after Election Day, votes are still being counted, not just locally but across America.

Isabel Longoria is Harris County's newly appointed Elections Administrator. She said it's normal for election officials across Texas and America to still be counting votes. She said while Election Day may be over, the work to tally all the votes remains underway.

"All the paperwork we received on Election Day, we've got to sort through it," said Longoria. "We've got to log it in. We've got to get people's official votes counted and in our system. No one is casting a new vote right now."

As America waits, votes from Arizona to Pennsylvania and right here in Houston continue to be counted. Longoria spoke with ABC13 from the NRG Arena, where they are still processing 11,000 provisional ballots and determining if voters were eligible to cast one.

"Everyone is tired but excited. Everyone understands how these days coming are just as important as Election Day, to get it right, to maintain the integrity of the elections," Longoria said. "Because if there's any question about what we're doing, how we're doubling or triple checking stuff now, you know voters are going to have concerns in the future, but what we want to get across is, no voter in Harris County should be concerned at all with the process."

And if the wait about who will become the next president is leaving you stressed, that's completely normal.

SEE ALSO: Election Day stress? How to relieve voter anxiety with positivity

Eyewitness News spoke with psychotherapist Ty David Lerman. Lerman said it's normal to experience stress given the unknown nature of the outcome. He said if you're feeling overwhelmed, you might want to take a step back.

"Keep yourself grounded in what is actually real, what is true," said Lerman. "I think that's a really big tool that we have is the ability to stay informed but we don't need to keep the window open and keep refreshing it every 5 minutes. When something happens, we're going to know. You're going to see it explode on social media. You're going to see it. You're going to know that it happened."

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