Five full days after the polls closed, the Cuyahoga Board of Elections finally released the full unofficial results ftom Tuesday's primary, with absentee ballots included. They're not posted at the BOE website and I can't find them on any of the TV news sites, so all I know is what I just heard broadcast on Channel 5. And the only race they mentioned (because it was the only one really in doubt):
Bill Ritter the Democratic primary winner in Ohio House District 14, edging out Mike Foley by something like a hundred votes.
So Tim and I were wrong about the absentee ballots. Barring a recount (and I have no clue whether there's any reason for Foley to consider asking for one, other than the tiny margin), Ritter will take over Dale Miller's old seat and run for a full term in November against Republican William McGivirn.
Since over 10,000 votes were cast in the Democratic primary, compared to 1,915 for the McGivirn (who was unopposed), Ritter's chances in November seem, um, pretty good.
THE LOOOONG COUNT: The last polls closed Tuesday at 9:30 pm. The final unofficial count was released to the news media this evening at about the same time.
Five days. One hundred and twenty hours. Each day since Wednesday the press has been told to expect results the following day, and each day the BOE has failed to deliver. The PD this morning (written last evening) told us:
County elections Director Michael Vu said the board planned to release the results this morning. "This has been a long and arduous election, but we did the right thing," Vu said.But "this morning" somehow turned into "just in time for the late news tonight"... even though the hand count of absentee ballots, supposedly the reason for the repeated delays, was finished on Friday.
I went by the BOE building at 7:30 tonight. The front door was locked, but there were a dozen cars in the lot. I asked the guard at the employee entrance if there was any word on the results. He told me to call tomorrow, they were still "doing things" upstairs.
What exactly were they doing?