A friend of mine got off the phone with the office of the Ohio Secretary of State and was told the following:
- Kerry's concession has no legal bearing on who wins the election.
- Ohio has been using and counting provisional ballots the exact same way for the past 10 elections.
- Ohio and Federal law dictate that the state will wait 10 days and then begin counting the provisional ballots.
- All valid provisional ballots will be counted.
- The winner of the state of Ohio shall not be considered official until such time as all provisional ballots have been counted.
- If Kerry is found to win Ohio, regardless of his public concession, he will win the election.
The woman she spoke with asked that people post this information far and wide because, for whatever reason, the media aren't reporting it.
There remain a couple of questions though. As of yesterday, Secretary of State Blackwell said there were about 175,000 provisional ballots, but that didn't include about 10 counties that hadn't turned theirs in yet. Did those counties include huge democratic stronghold and highly populated Cuyahuga county, that contains Cleveland?
J. Kenneth Blackwell Ohio Secretary of State 180 E. Broad St. 16th Floor Columbus, OH 43215
General Telephone Number (Toll Free): 1-877-767-6446 General Telephone Number (Local): 1-614- 466-2655
Elections questions or comments: email: election@sos.state.oh.us call: 614-466-2585