In a contest characterized as too close to call, unofficial results released early today indicate Republican Steve Stivers has opened the narrowest of leads in the race for the Fifteenth Congressional seat vacated by longtime Congresswoman Deborah Pryce.
Unofficial results completed early today show Fifteenth District GOP candidate Steve Stivers leading Mary Jo Kilroy by just 321 votes.
Stivers piled up large margins of victory in Union and Madison Counties, but the margin in Franklin county remains very close and the county still has absentee and provisional ballots left to be counted.
No matter the results, the narrow margin will trigger an automatic recount.
If the count stands, Stivers will replace retiring representative Deborah Pryce.
Stivers released the following statement:
"Unfortunately, the outcome of the race is not yet known , and the provisional and absentee ballots must be fully verified and counted. I know that the three counties? Boards of Elections will work professionally and efficiently to declare a winner, and I will look forward to them completing their excellent work in this race."
Kilroy's campaign released a statement as well:
"There are thousands of votes that are still being counted in the race for Ohio's 15th Congressional district. The process is working and this election is not over. The Mary Jo Kilroy for Congress Campaign is confident that when those votes are counted, Mary Jo will be declared the winner. The thousands of votes still being counted include early votes from Veterans Memorial and legal paper ballots that were issued at the polling sites. Many of these votes were in high turnout precincts where voters wanted to cast ballots in this historic election."
If Stivers wins, Republicans will have held on to three central Ohio congressional seats. In other races Congressman Pat Tiberi won reelection and Republican Steve Austria captured the seat being vacated by retiring Congressman Dave Hobson.
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