This is the day when elections boards certify the votes for president, U.S. Senate, Congressional seats and hundreds of local races and issues on which Ohio voters cast ballots three weeks ago. 

The delay is built into the law. It’s to allow each board time to figure out which provisional ballots – ballots cast when there’s a question about addresses or other information – they should include in the final tally. 

Those decisions and counts are of special interest in three Ohio House districts, where fewer than 400 votes in each separate the winner and the loser.

One is the district that covers all of Tuscarawas and much of Holmes counties, and where freshman Republican Al Landis leads Democratic challenger Josh O’Farrell by 331 out of more than 45,000 votes cast. 

Democrats regard that district as a “get,” and state Rep. Kathleen Clyde sent Secretary of State Jon Husted a letter last week urging him to ensure all legitimate votes are counted, including those where someone moved but lives in the same county. Doing otherwise, she maintains, would violate federal law. Tuscarawas County says it has thrown our 18 such votes based on Husted’s directives, and  Husted spokesman Matt McClellan says, “We’re not aware of any issues in Tuscarawas.” 

The other two state House districts hinging on the provisional counts are in Columbiana and southern Cuyahoga counties.