Updates with late vote tally further tightening Ohio special election

WESTERVILLE, Ohio – Ohio’s elections chief said more than 8,000 potential votes are yet to be tallied in a congressional special election.

Republican Troy Balderson ended Tuesday with a razor-thin lead of about 17-hundred votes over democrat Danny O’Connor. The elections chief said 3,435 provisional votes were cast and 5,048 absentee ballots are outstanding. That’s enough for O’Connor, the Franklin County Recorder, to potentially pick up enough votes to force a mandatory recount in the 12th congressional district. Balderson, a two-term state senator, from Zanesville congratulated C’Connor on a hard fought race as he declared his victory.

In November, Balderson and O’Connor will face off again in the mid-term election.

Election boards won’t count the provisional and outstanding absentee votes until August 18.

As of 5:45 p.m. on Wednesday, a late addition to voting tallies in Ohio’s congressional special election has further tightened the race. The Franklin County Board of Elections said Wednesday afternoon that a routine preliminary audit identified hundreds of additional votes cast in suburban Columbus precincts.

The elections board said the tally from the precincts in worthington included 388 votes for democrat Danny O’Connor and 198 for republican Troy Balderson.

Unofficial vote tallies before those ballots were announced had Balderson leading by about 1,750 votes, with the race too close to call.

Franklin County elections board spokesman Aaron Sellers said votes from a portion of one voting location weren’t processed into the tabulation system.

Elections boards must still count hundreds of absentee and provisional ballots in the race before the final results are known.