Ohio House 92nd: Athens County Reports Additional Absentee Ballots Found

According to a post at the conservative blog Lincoln Logs, an additional 1,152 uncounted absentee ballots have turned up at the Athens County board of elections. Add those to the 1,700 provisional and 93 absentee ballots we already knew about and that makes 2,945 uncounted ballots, out of which challenger Debbie Phillips (D-Athens) must net 1,373 to catch up to Rep. Jimmy Stewart (R-Athens). That feat would require winning 73.3% of the uncounted votes, an unlikely but not inconceivable scenario.

There are also a few uncounted ballots in the less-populated counties (Washington, Miegs and Morgan), which should break for Stewart. The other counties will count up their ballots on November 17th, while Athens County will do its final count on November 28th (the last day allowed).

UPDATE: John Kohlstrand at the Ohio House Democratic Caucus blog calls it over 3,000 uncounted ballots in Athens County, including 74 improperly scanned ballots in the total. He also describes the 1,152 uncounted abssentee ballots as "inadvertently not counted because of problems using a scanner." Also:

These ballots are mostly from the city of Athens and Nelsonville – areas where Phillips received strong support from voters. In fact, Democrats have reason to believe that Phillips’ own absentee ballot and that of Athens Democratic Party Chairwoman Susan Gwinn are in this pool.

The 1,700 provisional ballots include many from student neighborhoods near Ohio University.

The Ohio House Democratic Caucus has retained the McTigue Law Group of Columbus to monitor the situation in the 92nd House District, as well as the 20th House District where Bev Campbell (D-Gahanna) trails by 933 votes and the 16th House District where the lead of Jennifer Brady (D-Westlake) has shrunk to 850 votes.