The Delaware County Board of Elections on Monday completed its final canvass of the votes cast in the county for the open Ohio 12th Congressional District seat. With all votes officially accounted for, state Sen. Troy Balderson, R-Zanesville, was the highest vote-getter in Delaware County.
“For Balderson, it is 32,576 (votes). For Joe Manchik, he picked up about 14 votes to a total of 240, and Danny O’Connor was 27,548 (votes),” said Ed Helvey, chairman of the board. “It is a net gain (from the results recently on the evening of Aug. 7 by Secretary of State Jon Husted) of 152 votes for Troy Balderson.”
Once the result of the canvass had been tabulated, Karla Herron, the board of elections director, double checked the counts and presented the final results to the board.
“We had 3,403 ballots absentee after you ruled and that is what we have,” she said. “Election day, once you added the 2,351 paper and provisionals, you ruled to count 922, and we do have 922.”
After the canvass, Herron said 570 absentee ballots were counted, 560 were still outstanding, and 140 were returned late.
Before the board’s official canvass Monday, the unofficial results for Balderson in Delaware County stood at 31,750 votes, O’Connor had received 26,874 votes, and Manchik had received 226 out of the total 58,902 votes cast on Aug. 7 in the county.
The official total voter turnout rate for the county in the special election is 43.46 percent with a total of 60,420 total votes cast in the county’s 159 precincts. Delaware County has 139,020 total registered voters.
Taking into account all votes cast both on election day and through absentee and provisional ballots, Balderson received 53.97 percent of the vote, O’Connor received 45.64 percent, and Manchik received .40 percent of the 60,420 total votes cast in Delaware County.
In a press release from Secretary of State Jon Husted, the unofficial statewide voter turnout rate for the Ohio 12th Congressional District special election on Aug. 7 was 37.23 percent, with 202,521 total votes cast.
“County boards of elections reported that 3,435 provisional ballots were cast, and there were 5,048 outstanding absentee ballots,” the press release states.
Title 35 of the Ohio Revised Code states, boards of elections cannot begin the official canvass of ballots to certify results until 11 days after the election, so all boards may begin their official canvass of ballots Aug. 18, with the process being completed and certified by the Franklin County Board of Elections, the most populous county in the district, by Aug. 24.
While the official results are expected to be certified by the end of the week, Balderson and his team continue to claim victory in what was a too-close-to-call race on Aug. 7 for the right to finish out former Rep. Pat Tiberi’s term in Congress, which expires Jan. 3, 2019. Tiberi resigned in January.
