OH-15: It's Kilroy. And It's Not Close.
The votes have finally been tallied in Columbus, and '06 nominee Mary Jo Kilroy (D) has been declared the winner over state Sen. Steve Stivers (R) in the GOP open seat. Kilroy defeated Stivers by 2,311 votes, outside of the .5% margin needed for an automatic recount, according to the Columbus Dispatch. The Franklin Co. Board of Elections has scheduled a 12/8 meeting to certify the results.
Stivers had a 594-vote lead heading into the weekend. But that count included just the final tallies from two GOP-leaning counties, and not the CD's base, Franklin Co. The OH Supreme Court cleared the way for over 30K votes to be tallied in Franklin Co. 12/5 after it sided with Stivers' supporters and decided not to allow 1K disputed provisional ballots to be counted. Franklin Co. had held up on counting any of its provisional and late absentee ballots until that case was decided.
Kilroy was counting on the uncounted ballots in her home county to propel her to victory, despite the fact that Stivers has led, albeit by a very small margin, from Election Day on. In '06, provisional ballots from Franklin Co. gave Kilroy a bump of several thousand votes, although it wasn't enough to give her a victory over Rep. Deborah Pryce (R). This time, Kilroy picked up over 2.5K votes in the provisional ballot count, and it was enough to overcome Stivers' small lead.
Dems now have a net gain of 20 seats this cycle, with a recount pending in VA-05 and possibly in LA-04.
(TIM SAHD)
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