Cong OH-2: Over 8,600 Votes Not Yet Counted

The campaign of Victoria Wulsin (D-Indian Hill) reports that county boards of election in the 2nd Ohio Congressional District reported over 8,600 uncounted provisional ballots on hand as of Monday. The campaign also indicates that 2,800 votes separate Wulsin from Rep. "Mean Jean" Schmidt (R-Loveland), higher than the 2,323 margin reported here last Thursday. (The Ohio Secretary of State web site is down right now, so I cannot independently check the new number.)

From the press release:

Provisional ballots were issued to many voters on election day in place of regular ballots, often because poll workers were unclear about what forms of identification were permissible under Ohio's new voter ID laws. In Hamilton County, some of the highest numbers of provisional ballots were issued in precincts where Paul Hackett won over 70 percent of the vote in last year's special election.

Provisional voters who provided the last four digits of their social security numbers on election day will have their votes counted, but those who did not have until this Friday, November 17, to give that number or some other form of identification to their county board of elections as mandated by Ohio election law.

The phone lines at Wulsin's Cincinnati headquarters were once again full last night as volunteers worked to ensure that provisional voters throughout the district were informed of these requirements. The Ohio Democratic Party and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee are supplying staff and resources to support this effort.

"This race is so close, and almost 9,000 voters who spoke out on election day have yet to have their voices heard," said Wulsin. "We believe we can win. We also believe that no one who made the effort to vote should be disenfranchised by confusion at the polls."

These numbers indicate that Wulsin must get roughly 2/3 of the provisional ballots (5,700 out of 8,600) to win. Not a likely outcome, but close enough to keep fighting.

UPDATE: The Secretary of State site is up again. It shows 115,817 votes for Schmidt and 112,952 votes for Wulsin, a difference of 2,865 votes.