The Unbearable Lameness of Columbus, Part 713
Election can wait till after footballCounty puts off final tally until after OSU-Michigan meeting
Friday, November 10, 2006
The outcome of one of the nation’s tightest congressional races will wait until after one of its hottest college football games is played, Franklin County elections officials said yesterday.
Elections workers will delay their final, official tally of Tuesday’s ballots — a total that could add more than 38,000 votes to unofficial results in some races — until Nov. 19, the day after state law lets them begin counting provisional ballots.
They said they don’t plan to open for business on Nov. 18, a Saturday, when Ohio State plays Michigan at Ohio Stadium. But they’ll issue final election results by Nov. 21, a week before the state requires them.
They could count nearly 18,000 absentee ballots now, but they said they’ll wait to avoid more unofficial numbers.
"Our goal is to accommodate our employees’ plans for both the OSU football game and Thanksgiving," said Franklin County Board of Elections Director Matthew Damschroder.
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The official vote count is a second tabulation of ballots that produces the election results certified as final by local and state officials. It’s usually a formality that doesn’t change Election Day totals by much. But the second count this year will include thousands of extra votes because of an increase in the number of absentee and provisional ballots, fueled in part by a new state law that allows people to vote absentee without stating a reason.
A total of 17,766 absentee ballots that were returned Monday and Tuesday will remain uncounted until after the OSU-Michigan game, Damschroder said, correcting an elections board spokeswoman’s earlier comment that they’d be tallied by today.
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