Tagged: Hamilton County

Sen. Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican who has hinted at a possible run for the presidency in 2016, will be the featured speaker next month at the Northeast Hamilton County Republican Club's annual pancake breakfast.

Paul - the son of former Libertarian and GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul - has been dropping broad hints about 2016, but that year is also the year when his U.S. Senate seat is up for re-election. And, under Kentucky election law, Paul would have to choose one or the other.

Tuesday is the day Ohio's 88 county boards of elections must report their final official results from the Nov. 6 election to Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted.

In Hamilton County, that official count will include 13,771 provisional ballots cast on election that were deemed valid by the board of elections last week.

Those votes could have an impact on one ballot issue that was passed by a fairly narrow margin on election day - Issue 4, which would set four-year terms for Cincinnati City Council members.

Four years ago, politicos on both sides were stunned when the formerly rock-solid Hamilton County was won by Barack Obama by a margin of 29,683 votes, taking 54 percent of the county to 46 percent for GOP nominee John McCain.

This year, the GOP and the Romney-Ryan campaign rolled the dice on winning back Hamilton County, one of the handful of linchpin counties that can make or break a presidential campaign in Ohio.

Again, though, they lost.

About 100 voters at the Evanston Recreation Center were inconvenienced this morning when a worker failed to unlock the doors. Hamilton County Board of Elections chairman Tim Burke, who went to the scene himself when he heard about the problem, said an employee had forgotten to open the doors.  It was 7:15 a.m. when somebody came with a key. The poll workers were locked out too, so it took them a little while to set up even after the doors were opened.