OH-2 Race Not Over Yet

First of all, just the fact that enough voters in OH-2 would still cast large numbers of votes for Jean Schmidt is reason enough to be pessimistic about SW Ohio. We're not talking about a bad representative here, we're talking about a national embarrassment, an elected offical recently described in a national magazine as:

"as dependable an airhead as American politics has ever seen"

"In a Congress full of provincial dumb-asses, Jean Schmidt is this generation's standout..."

"...racing to stick a foot in her mouth every time someone turns on a video camera."

"...the freak-show embodiment of everything wrong with the Republican Party today..."


And yet even this sorry excuse for a public official can do well in OH-2. But the race isn't over, not yet. In a race this close, an accurate count is essential. That's why state elections have an automatic recount when the difference is 1%. The OH-2 race is also within that margin, if I remember the numbers.

There also the issue of provisional and absentee ballots:

Due to changes in Ohio's election laws, more than 9,000 absentee ballots were cast by Warren County residents this year. That's up from about 2,800 in the last general election.

Absentee ballots received after Nov. 2 will not be counted in the unofficial count released Tuesday night because they still need to be verified, said Susan Johnson, the elections director. They will be included with the final count, she said.

As of Nov. 1, the Warren County elections board in Lebanon had received 6,800 absentee ballots.

And that's just Warren County. The other 6 counties in the district will also have to count absentees and provisionals, and in a race this tight, small changes could affect the outcome.

So Wulsin should not concede. Not until every single vote in every county is counted. If that's a problem for the BOEs, then they have no business being in their jobs.