Deborah Pryce’s lead over Mary Jo Kilroy grew by 181 votes yesterday in their still-undecided congressional race, a smaller gain than expected in the Republican strongholds of Madison and Union counties.
As many as 19,500 uncounted absentee and provisional ballots in Franklin County portions of the district will decide the race, one of six U.S. House contests nationwide where a winner is still uncertain three weeks after Election Day.
Franklin County officials said they’ll finish their official count Monday morning, a day before Ohio law requires them to certify results of the Nov. 7 election.
Franklin County Board of Elections Director Matthew Damschroder said about 500 provisional ballots have been rejected so far countywide because they were cast by people not registered to vote. It’s unknown how many of that number are from 15 th district precincts.
This morning, relatively deep within a Columbus Dispatch article titled Pryce’s lead over Kilroy grows with 2 counties’ totals lies a item more newsworthy than the lead I think:
"But [Franklin County Board of Elections Director Matthew] Damschroder said one post-election discovery will add to Monday's official tally.
Votes from about 30 electronic machines in 12 county precincts weren't counted on election-night, he said, because poll workers didn't shut them down properly."
That would add another 1,800 or more votes countywide — and an unknown smaller number in the Pryce-Kilroy race — if those machines matched the average number of votes cast per machine across Franklin County....
Now isn't that a surprise???? Thirty voting machines were not included in the initial tally! Was someone trying to hide these machines? It isn't over yet! We remain hopeful that Democrat Kilroy will still win this.