Wulsin still trying to win

Democrat Victoria Wulsin isn't giving up on her race to unseat Republican Rep. Jean Schmidt in Ohio's 2nd Congressional District.

Wulsin sent out a news release today announcing that her campaign and the Ohio Democratic Party were launching a massive effort Tuesday to make sure 8,600 ballots that remained uncounted as of Monday, are counted.

But the race now hinges on lawyers and the daunting task of identifying voters in the seven-county district who voted with a provisional ballot.

About 2,800 votes currently separate Schmidt and Wulsin.

At issue, according to Wulsin’s campaign, are ballots in which poll workers failed to ask voters for the last four digits of their Social Security numbers, as required by law.

Campaign spokesman Bryan Collinsworth said voters have until Friday to call the board of elections in their county and make sure their ballots have the required information to be counted.

But Schmidt chief of staff Barry Bennett disputed the campaign’s claim, saying voters can’t go back and update their ballots or provide missing forms of ID. He said he expects the uncounted ballots to break along the same percentages as the ballots that were counted, giving Schmidt a net total of about 500 votes more than Wulsin.

“This is a desperate cry for help that is both not a correct interpretation of the law and not helpful to them in the end,” he said. “They just don’t get mathematics.”

Nevertheless, Wulsin’s campaign and the Hamilton County Democratic Party are spending this week on the phone calling registered voters in the precincts where the highest number of provisional ballots were cast.

In addition, the campaign is launching a wave of automated phone calls to votes across the district.

They also have joined the Ohio Democratic Party, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and campaign of Mary Jo Kilroy, a Columbus Democrat whose race also remained too close to call this week, in a lawsuit seeking to compel the county boards of elections to release lists of voters who cast provisional ballots.

“This race is so close, and almost 9,000 voters who spoke out on election day have yet to have their voices heard,” Wulsin said in a statement. “We believe we can win. We also believe that no one who made the effort to vote should be disenfranchised by confusion at the polls.”

UPDATE: The Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University has created a "recount roundup" which lists the Ohio 2nd as one of the top 10 recount races to watch. CLICK HERE for the roundup.

ANOTHER UPDATE:

Wulsin campaign's Collinsworth: "Maybe we 'don't get mathematics,' but I'm also concerned about Barry Bennett's ability to read."

From the Ohio Secretary of State's Web site: "A person who casts a provisional ballot and does not provide acceptable proof of identity at the time of voting is allowed to provide such proof within 10 days after the election, in accordance with law."

More Collingsworth: "I don't know how else to interpret that. But I certainly don't want the Schmidt campaign discouraging people from getting their votes counted."