Free Republic

... “In 2016, a lot of us assumed we knew what would happen in Michigan and Wisconsin,” Salvanto told The Post. “It was a great lesson for us pollsters: Even if you think you know what will happen, poll it if you can.” Blame it on the Blue Wall. Since 1992, in six consecutive presidential elections, a solid block of 18 states had voted for the Democrat every single time. They would have given Clinton 239 electoral votes — 89 percent of the way to victory — if she had held on to them all.Few bothered to ask those states’...

Central Ohioans have seen no lack of spin in the 12th Congressional District special election for the past several weeks, but the hard reality of math is finally making a winner all but certain. Bottom line: Republican Troy Balderson will prevail in the multimillion-dollar struggle unless Democrat Danny O’Connor takes a stunning share of the remaining uncounted votes. The O’Connor camp estimates roughly 3,000 ballots will be left to tabulate when county elections board begin their official count. Even if O’Connor gets a whopping 75 percent of those remaining 3,000 ballots, he would gain only 2,250 votes. That wouldn’t be...

A week after Election Day, Democrat Danny O’Connor’s campaign in the special election in Ohio’s 12th District is optimistic there will be a recount. Speaking on a media call, O’Connor’s campaign team said it’s hopeful that provisional ballots yet to be counted will bring the race within the 0.5 percentage point margin that would trigger an automatic recount. “Compared to a general vote population, provisional ballots tend to lean Democrat,” said Rachel Bloomekatz, counsel for the campaign. Bloomkatz said there are still 3,000 outstanding provisional ballots.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is a GIF worth? For Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a GIF can clearly tell its own story. The Republican, who is an outspoken Trump critic, dismissed a Twitter attack from President Donald Trump on Monday by simply tweeting a GIF of Russian President Vladimir Putin laughing.

Last week, Republican Troy Balderson struggled to beat Democrat Danny O'Connor in a House special election in suburban Columbus -- an Ohio district the GOP has held for decades and President Trump won by 11 percentage points two years ago. (The race -- still too close to call with a margin of 1,564 votes -- won't be declared until Aug. 24, when all the absentee ballots have been counted.) In March, Republican Rick Saccone lost a special election to Democrat Conor Lamb in Pennsylvania, another district that voted solidly for Trump. Both Ohio and Pennsylvania represent the new coalition...

President Trump on Monday blamed Ohio Gov. John Kasich for a tight special congressional election last week — and Kasich fired back by tweeting a GIF of a laughing Vladimir Putin. “The very unpopular Governor of Ohio (and failed presidential candidate) @JohnKasich hurt Troy Balderson’s recent win by tamping down enthusiasm for an otherwise great candidate. Even Kasich’s Lt. Governor lost Gov. race because of his unpopularity. Credit to Troy on the BIG WIN!” the commander-in-chief tweeted.

Seems there was “interference” in last Tuesday’s special election in Ohio’s 12th congressional district, where Republican candidate Troy Balderson holds a very slim lead over Democrat Danny O’Connor. That is how Seema Iyer, a reporter with Channel 6, the ABC affiliate in Columbus, described it. Was it the Russians? Well, actress Alyssa Milano tweeted that yes, indeed, she thought the result was a clear-cut sign of “Russian meddling.” After all, her candidate lost. All she lacked was evidence. “Actress, Armed Gun Control Activist, and International Security Expert Alyssa Milano Laments Putin Voting in Ohio,” was Red State’s headline on the...

Rep. Jim Jordan, the Ohio congressman who was spotted as a star by President Trump at a rally last week, is finally getting some vindication. Turns out that an earlier smear-attack on him, put on by the left about how he supposedly ignored sexual abuse as a coach earlier in his career, reported copiously by the press, was fake and phony all along. Just as Thomas Lifson suspected from the get-go, calling it the work of "the left's personal destruction machine." Turns out the person who leveled the original charge has since recanted. According to the Daily Caller: A former Ohio State...

A Jordanian immigrant facing the death penalty in Houston praised Osama bin Laden for the terror attacks on New York City on September 11, 2001, and said the violence was deserved, his daughter testified Tuesday. Nesreen Irsan, 30, told jurors that her fervently Muslim father, 60-year-old Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan, was living in Conroe when the infamous attacks occurred and was happy that Americans had died. He also told his 12 children they should become suicide bombers if asked. “He said it’s what America deserves,” the daughter said as she testified against the father who has been convicted of killing her...

Former Ohio State University wrestler, Mark Coleman is now walking back his claims Congressman Jim Jordan knew about sexual abuse allegations against a doctor when he was a wrestling coach at the college over 20 years ago. ~~~~Snip~~~~ Mark Coleman told the Wall Street Journal in early July, “There’s no way unless he’s got dementia or something that he’s got no recollection of what was going on at Ohio State. I have nothing but respect for this man, I love this man, but he [Jim Jordan] knew as far as I’m concerned.” Now the former wrestler is walking back his...

Real Title: Rush Limbaugh Warns That Democrats Are Trying to Steal Ohio D-12 Election — After Dems Find 500 Votes Lying Around at Polling Station Snip~~ Rush Limbaugh warned his audience on Thursday that Democrats are trying to steal the Ohio special election. This comes after election officials found a stash of 500 votes lying around at an Ohio polling station. The votes gave Democrat O’Connor another 190 votes to narrow Republican Balderson’s lead. What luck! USA Today reported:

Election officials in Ohio found 588 uncounted votes Wednesday in a suburb of Columbus, county officials said. After counting the ballots, Republican Troy Balderson received 198 votes; Democrat Danny O’Connor got 388 votes; and Joe Manchik, 2 votes. Thus, O’Connor gained 190 on Balderson, who currently leads by 1,564 votes in the close race. “The votes from a portion of one voting location had not been processed into the tabulation system,” officials explained. “Election night results are tabulated through the use of a device called a master PEB that is returned to the Board along with flash drives from each...

U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) sent a letter to Bank of the West President and Chief Executive Officer Nandita Bakhshi pushing back on the bank’s decision to no longer conduct business with companies engaged in the exploration and production of coal, oil and natural gas. Bank of the West, headquartered in San Francisco, CA, has 23 branches with dedicated employees who work hard to serve communities and families across Wyoming. In his letter, Barrasso condemned the San Francisco headquarter’s attack on Wyoming’s communities and businesses that depend on fossil fuels for energy security, jobs and economic growth. “This misguided and...

Wednesday on MSNBC’s “MTP Daily,” Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) said the close congressional special election result in Ohio’s 12th district was a message to the Republican Party from voters. When asked about the results last night, Kasich said. “There’s no question that people sent a message to the party, to Republicans, knock it off, the chaos, the divisions, I mean kids being separated from their parents at the border, these crazy tariffs. Hey, we’re going to take your health care. We’re going to kill Obamacare, which means you’re not going to have any health care.

Actress and activist Alyssa Milano suggested that third-party votes in the Ohio special congressional election Tuesday evening could be the result of “Russian meddling.” In a close race, GOP candidate Troy Balderson led Democrat Danny O’Connor in a special election for Ohio’s 12th Congressional District on Tuesday evening. Balderson obtained 1,754 more votes than O’Connor. There are still 3,435 provisional ballots must still be counted, according to the New York Times. There are also more than 5,000 absentee ballots that were mailed to voters but not returned as of election day. Green Party candidate Joe Manchik secured approximately 1,127 votes,...

Cincinnati police officers used a Taser on an 11-year-old girl accused of stealing from a supermarket.

Here's an amazing stat: In the last 14 contested Republican primaries where President Donald Trump has endorsed a candidate, his pick has won -- or is leading -- all 14 times. That's remarkable. (Hat tip to WaPo's James Hohmann for doing the math!) And it speaks to the fact that despite Trump's weak numbers among the general populace, he remains a massively powerful force within the GOP -- someone who can make and break candidacies with a single tweet. Take Tuesday night. Trump endorsed John James in Michigan's Republican Senate primary, Bill Schuette in the Michigan governor's race and Kris...

<p>I can't post the article here since it is from USA today. So just go search for the title to find out that the democrats are finding uncounted ballots as usual. Of course this batch favors the democrat by 190 votes.</p>

Voters in Ohio's 12th Congressional District appear to have narrowly elected Republican Troy Balderson in yesterday's special election, thwarting Democrats' hopes to flip another GOP-held seat ahead of the midterm elections.  The race came down to the wire, but the incumbent party ultimately prevailed.  There's a small chance that provisional ballots could trigger a recount, and that absentee ballots could shift votes, but left-leaning elections guru Dave Wasserman looks at the math and effectively calls the contest over, discerning that defeated Democrat Danny O'Connor would "need a miracle" to reverse the outcome.  For all intents and purposes, and barring major...

A Green Party candidate for Congress in Ohio's nail-biter contest who won nearly enough votes to throw the race into an automatic recount – gave a speech-slurred interview this year in which he couldn't remember his own website address. Joe Manchik also says he's descended from aliens and hails from the town of Hell, Michigan. In Tuesday's closely watched special election, 1,127 Ohioans chose him over Republican Troy Balderson and Democrat Danny O'Connor.