Ohio House 92nd: Phillips (D) Trails By 1,373 Votes

Although the Secretary of State's web site doesn't include results from Athens County, they are reflected in totals reported today in the Athens News for the race between Debbie Phillips (D-Athens) and Rep. Jimmy Stewart (R-Athens):

19,186 (51.86%) - Stewart (R)
17,813 (48.14%) - Phillips (D)

This leaves Phillips with 1,373 votes to make up from the 1,700 provisional ballots and 93 late absentee ballots in Athens County, and any additional late absentee ballots that arrive. Phillips won 56.26% of the Athens County votes already counted but would need better than 75% 88.2% of the remainder to catch up. There will also be a few provisional and absentee ballots from the other three counties in the district, which are likely to break for Stewart.

Phillips told me this morning that she is collecting information about election irregularities, including ballots where only one of two pages were read. The Athens News article indicates that there may have been at least 74 of these. In addition, the struggle to get Athens County's new scanning machine for absentee ballots to work properly raises questions. An elections official at one point called the difficulty a "calibration problem," which suggests the possibility of votes not being counted by the scanner correctly. Two technicians sent by manufacturer ES&S to help with the problem were instructed not to talk to reporters. Phillips said that she is going to meet with election attorneys to review the situation, and also that she has several registered observers ready to watch the counting of provisional ballots.