OHIO – Pickaway County came out to vote yesterday more than they have in the past years at a staggering 52%.
According to the Board of Elections, Pickaway County has a total of 36,541 registered voters, a total of 18,823 ballots cast yesterday at 52%. The past years were recorded at 32%, 26%, 31%, and 46%.
Contested races were Circleville Mayor, Ashville Mayor, School Board members, Levies, and two statewide issues.
Stand outwinners of the election is Michelle Blanton won Circleville Mayor by 62%, Steve Welsh won Ashville Mayor by 72%, Issue 1 and Issue 2 both failed in Pickaway County Issue 1 for Abortion failed by 55% but passed in Ohio, and the same thing happened with Issue 2 it failed in Pickaway County by nearly 52% but passed in Ohio.
Several major levies failed in Pickaway County, Cemeteries levy .5 mil for Harrison Township failed by 58%, The Circleville Saftey forces .4% levy also failed by 54%, and both levies in New Holland 51% and 61%.
According to the Pickaway County Board of Elections, they have 290 Provisional ballots they are still processing but are not expected to change any of the official results of the election.
“We are still processing these provisional ballots,” said Matthew Nicklas, Director, “We process all ballots and they will be tallied as information comes in, there is some misinformation out there that we do not count provisionals unless voting issues are close, and that’s not true, we count every one of them and account for them.”
A provisional ballot is used to record a vote if a voter’s eligibility is in question and the voter would otherwise not be permitted to vote at his or her polling place. The content of a provisional ballot is no different from a regular ballot, but it is cast “provisionally” until election officials can verify the voter’s eligibility to vote in the particular precinct at that election.
There are several scenarios in which a voter may cast a provisional ballot. A provisional ballot may be used on Election Day if a voter’s eligibility is in question, or before (or on) Election Day if a voter has recently changed his or her address and did not update his or her voter registration. One of the issues that was seen during this election was that several people had expired identification.
Due to recent law changes in Ohio, you must provide proof of ID to vote. That is usually an Ohio driver’s license or state identification card, but it can be a U.S. military ID or Government ID.
Information is usually needed to process the vote after the election that has to be turned in for that vote to be valid.
Pickaway County Board of Elections, like all other election boards, has just over a week to account for all ballots that came from their counties. Last night’s numbers are currently, “unofficial results” The official results will be posted after the board certifies all have been accounted for on the 20th of November.
