Franklin County Board of Elections to Certify Official Results at 9:00 AM Tomorrow

A reader has sent me a copy of an official notice sent by the Franklin County Board of Elections to election observers, indicating that the board will meet at 9:00 am tomorrow for the purpose of certifying the official election results of the general election on November 7th. The disputed 15th Congressional district race between Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Upper Arlington) and challenger Mary Jo Kilroy (D-Columbus) and the 20th Ohio House District race between State Rep. Scott Jim McGregor (R-Gahanna) and challenger Bev Campbell (D-Gahanna) hinge upon the offical results, which will include previously uncounted absentee and provisional ballots, as well as some votes not previously counted due to errors in the handling of electronic voting machines.

The official notice also indicates that no provisional ballots are to be excluded from the official results due to insufficient proof of identification or failure to meet the eight-part test for inclusion established by the U.S. District Court in a consent order entered on November 1st in the voter ID litigation. This notice is given in compliance with the Agreed Enforcement Order subsequently entered in the case, designed to insure that election observers have the opportunity to challenge any exclusion of provisonal ballots for reasons relevant to the litigation. It is surprising that no provisional ballots are identified in the notice, since the eight-part test includes broad and common problems with provisional ballots like not being registered to vote, ineligibility to vote, and ineligibility to vote in the particular precinct. The fact that no ballots are to be excluded for these reasons raises the question of whether any provisonal ballots are to be excluded at all, a departure from the typical result that something like 15% to 30% of provisional ballots are excluded from the official results of an election.

UPDATE: I'm told that there are many provisional ballots to be excluded. How the board justifies not reporting the exclusions under the heading of failure to meet the eight-part test remains to be seen.