Ohio county finds hundreds of uncounted votes in already too-close-to-call special election

Ohio election officials on Wednesday found 588 previously uncounted votes in its hotly contested special election for the state’s 12th Congressional District.

Officials found the votes in a Columbus suburb, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer, netting Democratic candidate Danny O’Connor 190 more votes and narrowing his race against Republican Troy Balderson to 1,564 votes.

“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 news release obtained by the paper. 

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Balderson, who was backed by President Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) during his campaign, claimed a narrow victory on Tuesday night for the district which Trump won and which has been held by a Republican since 1983.

O’Connor has said he has no plans to concede the race until all votes have been counted. According to the Enquirer, 3,435 provisional ballots and 5,048 absentee ballots still have yet to be counted, which will reportedly be counted by Aug. 24. 

6:05 PM UPDATE

We just netted 190 VOTES from Franklin County!

We’re confident DANNY WILL WIN once ALL the votes are counted, but we spent EVERYTHING we had on the Special Election.

Please donate $5 to make sure EVERY LAST VOTE is counted fairly.https://t.co/c4xUZd1ngr

— Danny O’Connor (@dannyoconnor1) August 8, 2018

State election officials will issue an automatic recount if the race’s final results show a margin of 0.5 percent or less. 

Republicans had expected to win the special election easily, but found themselves up against a high level of Democratic enthusiasm ahead of the midterm elections in November.

The GOP hopes to maintain control of the House in November’s midterms, posing a stiff challenge to Democrats who have to flip 23 seats in order to win the majority, many of which are in suburban districts similar to Ohio’s 12th District.

Most political analysts say Democrats could sweep the House, with handicappers like the Cook Political Report rating more than a half-dozen GOP seats as likely or leaning Democratic in November and dozens of other Republican-held seats as toss-ups.