Election officials in Ohio's Franklin County discovered 588 uncounted ballots from Tuesday's special election in the state's 12th congressional district, and after they were counted, Democrat Danny O'Connor netted 190 votes. That cut Republican Troy Balderson's lead to 1,594 votes, with 3,435 provisional ballots and 5,048 absentee ballots left to be processed by Aug. 24. "The votes from a portion of one voting location had not been processed into the tabulation system," the Franklin County Board of Elections said in a statement, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
O'Connor hasn't conceded the race, in which a colorful Green Party candidate, Joe Manchik, picked up at least 1,127 votes. But Balderson still has the upper hand, The Columbus Dispatch explains:
He needs to win about 57 percent of the remaining 8,483 uncounted ballots to make up the deficit. While that might sound doable, the 8,483 total assumes every single provisional ballot will be counted and that every single uncounted ballot that was mailed overseas or to a member of the military is returned within 10 days. [The Columbus Dispatch]
If the final tally shows a difference of 0.5 percentage points or less between Balderson and O'Connor, there will be an automatic recount. Either way, the two candidates will face each other again in three short months.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
How China is battling the chikungunya virusUnder The Radar Thousands of cases of the debilitating disease have been found in the country
-
Deep thoughts: AI shows its math chopsFeature Google's Gemini is the first AI system to win gold at the International Mathematical Olympiad
-
Book reviews: 'Face With Tears of Joy: A Natural History of Emoji' and 'Blood Harmony: The Everly Brothers Story'Feature The surprising history of emojis and the brother duo who changed pop music
-
Trump picks conservative BLS critic to lead BLSspeed read He has nominated the Heritage Foundation's E.J. Antoni to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics
-
Trump takes over DC police, deploys National GuardSpeed Read The president blames the takeover on rising crime, though official figures contradict this concern
-
Trump sends FBI to patrol DC, despite falling crimeSpeed Read Washington, D.C., 'has become one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the world,' Trump said
-
Trump officials reinstating 2 Confederate monumentsSpeed Read The administration has plans to 'restore Confederate names and symbols' discarded in the wake of George Floyd's 2020 murder
-
Trump nominates Powell critic for vacant Fed seatspeed read Stephen Miran, the chair of Trump's Council of Economic Advisers and a fellow critic of Fed chair Jerome Powell, has been nominated to fill a seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors
-
ICE scraps age limits amid hiring pushSpeed Read Anyone 18 or older can now apply to be an ICE agent
-
Trump's global tariffs take effect, with new additionsSpeed Read Tariffs on more than 90 US trading partners went into effect, escalating the global trade war
-
House committee subpoenas Epstein filesSpeed Read The House Oversight Committee has issued a subpoena to the Justice Department for its Jeffrey Epstein files with an Aug. 19 deadline
