Posted on 11/05/2008 11:15:39 AM PST by buccaneer81
Winner of Kilroy-Stivers race likely won't be known for 10 days Votes still being counted for 15th Congressional District seat Wednesday, November 5, 2008 12:46 PM By James Nash THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
It's unlikely that voters in central Ohio's 15th Congressional District will know who will represent them in Washington for at least 10 days and maybe not even then.
Republican state Sen. Steve Stivers clung to a 321-vote lead over Democratic Franklin County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy out of more than 250,000 votes counted in the district covering western Franklin County and all of Madison and Union counties.
Still uncounted as of noon that are expected to be released with the unofficial count by 5 p.m.: regular paper ballots cast at the polls yesterday, as well as the absentee ballots cast in person at Vets Memorial on Monday or delivered to the board by the time polls closed yesterday.
Yet to be counted are provisional ballots, which won't be tallied for 10 days; the military and overseas absentee ballots postmarked by the time the polls closed yesterday and received by Nov. 14; any domestic absentee ballots postmarked by Monday that are received by Nov. 14; as well as any of the estimated 5,000 absentee ballots with errors that voters correct by Nov. 14.
Kilroy's campaign predicted that those ballots would melt away Stivers' lead. Provisional ballots, often cast by younger voters and new residents, often skew Democratic.
"We are confident that when the Board of Elections completes their work that Mary Jo Kilroy will be declared the winner given the number of ballots that have yet to be counted in Franklin County," Kilroy spokesman Brad Bauman said.
The Stivers campaign hasn't publicly commented on the status of the election since 2:25 a.m., when it said the race was too close to call.
Two years ago, Kilroy came within 1,062 votes of knocking off incumbent Rep. Deborah Pryce, who announced her retirement in 2007.
Pryce held a lead of more than 3,000 votes on the day after the 2006 election, but her margin decreased when provisional ballots were counted. That race fell within the 0.5-percent margin to trigger a mandatory recount.
That recount wasn't finished until almost mid-December.
Praying for a victory.
Ohio election ping!
This is good news. I thought that Kilroy was going to win this. Some revelations about her radical past may have done to her what Billy Ayers did not do to Obama.
That moron in AL running for the open seat won also. What is wrong with people?? I think he is the one who insulted soldiers or veterans. I forget what the exact quote was. But he sounds like a left wing nut and conservative AL elected him. Makes me think we are hopeless.
I thought Stivers was already ahead.
Bright or Griffith ?
I think Griffith is the Dem.
On the CNN page they show Stivers ahead here by 5% with 100% of votes counted. Either that is an error or this article is.
Actually, Kilroy led through the race, though by single-digit margins. I thought this seat was a goner.
I think you’re thinking of John Murtha of Pensnsylvania.
In Alabama, the Democrats won two close open seats, picking up a Republican-held one.
No in the northern AL district a moderate Dem retired. Bud Cramer was the name I think. Represented the area around the US Space and Rocket Center. Repubs hoped to pick up that seat but failed. The Dem made some very insulting remarks about veterans or guys serving in Iraq, I thought. I probably read about it on FR. I will have to see what I can find.
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