This month’s election results are still unofficial, and the process to close out the 2018 midterms starts this weekend.
There are more than 115,000 uncounted absentee ballots and just over 100,000 provisional ballots statewide – more than half are in the most populous counties of Cuyahoga, Franklin, Hamilton, Lucas, Montgomery, Stark and Summit. Counting by county boards of elections can start on Saturday, but it must start by Wednesday – the day before Thanksgiving. And it must be finished by November 27. The vote will be certified by the Secretary of State and official sometime in the first two weeks of December. There are four Ohio House races and a Senate race that are each separated by a couple hundred votes. Republicans lead in four of those races, but even if the Democrats win them all, Republicans maintain a supermajority in the Senate and keep their majority in the House.