A late addition to voting tallies in Ohio's congressional special election has further tightened the race. Democrat Danny O’Connor now trails Republican Troy Balderson by just 1,564 votes.
The Franklin County Board of Elections said Wednesday afternoon that a routine preliminary audit identified hundreds of additional votes cast in suburban Columbus precincts.
The elections board says the tally from the precincts in Worthington included 388 votes for O'Connor and 198 for Balderson.
Unofficial vote tallies before those ballots were announced had Balderson leading by about 1,750 votes, with the race too close to call. A margin of victory of 0.5 percent or lower triggers an automatic recount.
Franklin County Elections Board spokesman Aaron Sellers says votes from a portion of one voting location weren't processed into the tabulation system.
The updated votes now gives Balderson a total of 101,772 votes to O'Connor's 100,208. Green Party Joe Manchik got 1,129 votes.
Elections boards must still count over 8,400 absentee and provisional ballots in the race before the final results are known. But that count won’t happen until August 18.
Balderson declared victory late Tuesday night, but O'Connor declined to concede and said he would pursue a recount.
