Losing candidate to pay for partial recount

WASHINGTON — Republican congressional candidate Melanie Leneghan, a trustee in Delaware County’s Liberty Township who narrowly lost the May 8 GOP primary for Ohio’s open 12th Congressional District seat to state Sen. Troy Balderson of Zanesville, is paying for a partial recount.

Four counties in the seven-county district have scheduled their recount for 9 a.m. Wednesday, Leneghan said. She has asked for recounts in certain precincts in Franklin, Muskingum, Licking and Delaware counties.

Balderson received 653 more votes than Leneghan in the primary, according to the Ohio secretary of state’s website. Leneghan said she was requesting a recount to make sure all the votes were properly counted. The two were the top vote-getters in the primary, with Balderson Leneghan receiving 29.2 percent and Leneghan receiving 28.2 percent of the vote in a nineperson Republican primary to replace Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Genoa Township, who stepped down in January.

Unless the recount shifts the outcome of the race, Balderson will face Franklin County Recorder Danny O’Connor in a special election Aug. 7 and in the Nov. 6 general election.

“Due to the closeness of the election and out of respect for voters and for our supporters, we’ve been asked by supporters as well as people outside of the campaign to please do a recount,” she said.

An automatic recount in the state of Ohio is triggered when there is less than a 0.5-percent difference between the winning and losing candidates.

Balderson said, “Melanie and I ran strong campaigns and I thoroughly enjoyed our substantive debate over the future of the 12th District. I’m fully confident the results of the election will be upheld.”

Leneghan isn’t asking for a recount of the entire congressional district, which includes all or parts of Franklin, Delaware, Licking, Muskingum, Morrow, Richland and Marion counties. Instead, she’s seeking a recount of five precincts in Delaware County, 21 in Franklin County, six precincts in Licking County and 16 in Muskingum County. She said her campaign chose some precincts because they were looking for a sampling, and others because the campaign questioned the numbers.