The Pickaway County Board of Elections (BOE) released a letter Saturday explaining that there was a “discrepancy in the unofficial election results which added more absentee vote totals than were cast for all candidates.”
The BOE reported that the discrepancy resulted when a USB thumb drive containing a “test data pattern” was inserted into the tabulating computer by mistake. The data included votes for candidates on the Pickaway County ballot.
Thus, the unofficial results include these test data votes, which will need to be subtracted from the unofficial votes as part of the process to determine the official results.
The USB information was erased after the votes were uploaded into the tabulating computer. The official Pickaway County ballot was used in the test data pattern. The votes that were added in error are known and are documented.
The BOE has not released that data or even how many votes were in the test data pattern.
Additionally, there are 117 provisional ballots that are still being reviewed for addition to the unofficial results. Also, as of election day, there were 68 absentee ballots that had not been returned.
Only 18 have now been deemed valid as they had to be postmarked on or before March 18 and received in the mail at the BOE by Saturday, May 23 .
The official results will be released by the BOE at 3 p.m. Friday, March 29 in the conference room at the Pickaway County Job & Family Services location at 1005 S. Pickaway Street in Circleville.
The unofficial results, which were released on March 19, will not be updated or changed until the release of the official results. Those unofficial results showed that there were 36,996 registered voters, and, as of March 19, there were 15,096 Total ballots cast for a turnout of 40.8%.
The website data also shows mail absentee ballots received as on March 19 were 2,464 with 1,887 of them were cast in the Republican primary.
Because of several close elections, there has been widespread interest in this error and how the corrections will affect the final results.
In the Republican Primary Sheriff’s Race, the unofficial results show incumbent Sheriff Matt Hafey with 5,548 votes and Dale Thomas with 5,411, for a difference of just 137 votes.
There were also other close contests that could be affected by the subtraction of the test data pattern and the addition of provisional and absentee votes. In the contests for Republican Central Committee, there are many close elections. In Circleville-South precinct, Richard Elsea leads Tammy Downs-McCaffrey by just one vote, 117 to 116! In Circleville-North, Mike Whitten leads Randall Winter by just 4 votes, 82-78.
In Circleville-Northwest, James Sizemore also leads by just 4 votes, 50-46. There are three other Republican Central Committee races that are within 10 votes.
The online version of this story includes an appendix showing how close this election was for some races.
Another matter that has raised concern is the incumbent sheriff wearing his uniform to some of the polling locations on Election Day. The Ohio Revised Code, Section 3599.38, covers the issue of illegally influencing voters while performing election duties. This provision states that:
(A) No election official, observer, deputy sheriff, special deputy sheriff, or police officer, while performing that person’s duties related to the casting of votes, shall do either of the following:
(1) Wear any badge, sign, or other insignia or thing indicating that person’s preference for any candidate or for any question submitted at an election;
(2) Influence or attempt to influence any voter to cast the voter’s ballot for or against any candidate or issue submitted at an election.
(B) Whoever violates division (A) of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree.
This regulation does not appear to cover or affect the sheriff. This could be because the county sheriff is the top law enforcement officer in the county and is considered to always be on duty.
The Ohio Secretary of State directs every sheriff in their election day responsibilities and puts them in charge of the elections in their county.
Editor’s Note: This article was written by Dave Horning, a local businessman and civic leader.
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