Hamilton County finishes tallying of votes

CINCINNATI - The official Hamilton County election count is done.

Election officials said the final tally of early votes, provisional ballots and votes cast Nov. 6 doesn’t significantly change the results of any race.

Overall voter turnout was 421,997, which is 75 percent of the registered voters in Hamilton County. That number included about 15,000 provisional ballots.

President Barack Obama carried Hamilton County with 53 percent of the vote, compared to Mitt Romney’s 46 percent.

Similar margins were recorded for U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, over Republican Josh Mandel, as well as Democratic Sheriff-elect Jim Neill in his race against Republican Chief Deputy Sean Donovan.

Cincinnati Issue 4, the initiative to extend City Council terms from two years to four years, remained in the passing column. Final numbers showed 51 percent of voters supported the issue, with 49 percent opposed.

Sally Krisel, deputy director of the Hamilton County Board of Elections, said none of the results were close enough to qualify for a mandatory recount. That occurs when a margin of victory is less than one-half of one percent.

The board will certify the results at 4 p.m. Tuesday, then forward the information to Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted in Columbus.