Count Completed

The William County Board of Elections on Monday reviewed provisional ballots and certified the final results of the Nov. 8 general election. Of 224 provisional ballots cast Nov. 8, the election board OK’d 172 and found that 52 were unable to be counted, due to reasons set forth in the Ohio Revised Code. Some of those reasons include the voter not being properly registered, the voter’s name or birthdate on the provisional was different than that in the statewide voter registration database, or the voter did not fill out the provisional ballot completely. The additional provisions that were approved did not affect the outcome of any issues or races in the country, officials say. In 2020, election officials rejected 92 of 389 provisional ballots cast, or an almost identical 23.65% rejection rate. A post-election audit is performed after each Ohio election, when a bipartisan team of Republicans and Democrats from county boards of elections compares the tabulated results. Unlike some other states, the Ohio Secretary of State’s office has required Ohio’s county boards to audit election results after every election.