"Godzillions" of ballots in Wulsin race?

Timothy M. Burke, the chairman of the Hamilton County Board of Elections and the county Democratic chair, said it's conceivable that there are enough provisional ballots yet to be counted to keep Wulsin in the running mathematically.

"It is certainly theoretically possible," he said.

Provisionals are ballots where the eligibility of the voter is in question -- most likely because there was a question about their identification, a change of address or a change in polling location.

But as of midnight, no one knows how many of those ballots there are.

"I went downstairs and said, 'Give me a number,'" Burke said. "And the numbers I got were 'godzillions' and 'tons.' Those are the kinds of responses I got from our highly professional staff. But in all seriousness, we don't know. But it's clear there are going to be thousands -- not hundreds -- of provisionals just in Hamilton County."

Also uncounted are an unknown number of ballots that could not be counted at the polling place because the scanners jammed or otherwise malfunctioned. Those were put in provisional envelopes, though their validity isn’t questioned. And then there are perhaps a few hundred overseas absentee ballots yet to arrive.