DAYTON — There are still a number of close races that will affect voters in the Miami Valley, and while the Associated Press is calling many of these races, there are still uncounted ballots that could force a recount.
News Center 7’s Xavier Hershovitz was in Montgomery County Friday and talked with election leaders about how this week went and the work they still have to do.
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It was a relatively smooth election in Montgomery County, but with several close races, there are still thousands of ballots to be counted, and each vote could make a difference.
Jeff Rezabeck, Director of the Montgomery County Board of Elections, said, “The election here in Montgomery County went fairly smoothly.” He continued, “We had over 40,000 who voted early, and that did set some records.”
From early voting to Election Day, it was busy for poll workers. With about 56 percent turnout of registered voters in Montgomery County, that is on par with 2018 – the last time Ohio had both a governor’s and U.S. Senate race.
“Where you saw the differences was really in absentee versus early voting. We had a tremendous drop in absentee ballot requests. I think which was reflective of the turnout in early voting,” Rezabeck said.
There are still more votes to be counted. The county has more than 4,400 provisional ballots, more than 1,500 on-time absentee ballots and about 500 curbside votes, along with 189 outstanding military or overseas ballots.
“Don’t be discouraged if we tell you to vote provisionally. It’s probably going to count. You know, just get it in there,” Rezabeck said.
Once the election is certified, some of these close races could go to a recount if they end within half a percentage.
Guy Aber, Deputy Director of the Montgomery County Board of Elections, said, “Once we get that kind of 5% segregated and off to the side, we will sit down in a two-person team, Democrat and Republican, and one person will read the ballot and the other person will mark the check marks for that race.”
The provisional ballots will begin being counted next Thursday, with the election set to be officially certified on November 24.
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