PDT Staff Writer

Not so fast.

U.S. 2nd District Democratic Congressional candidate Victoria Wulsin has yet to concede defeat to incumbent Jean Schmidt.

In fact, the Wulsin campaign said it will consider asking for a recount in the coming days.

A Wulsin spokesman said she will wait until absentee and provisional votes from the race are counted. Counting will begin next week.

In unofficial results, Schmidt won the race with 115,817 votes (50.58 percent) to Wulsin's 112,952 (49.32 percent).

When asked for a comment from Wulsin, the spokesman directed the Portsmouth Daily Times to her Web site.

“This election is by no means over,” she wrote on the site. “Thousands of absentee and provisional ballots have yet to be counted. Until all the votes are counted, this race continues.”

The absentee votes include military families and those living abroad, said Wulsin.

Schmidt did not return repeated phone calls seeking comment.

Wulsin said she sent a letter to all seven boards of election in the district requesting information on the number of provisional ballots cast and the number of absentee ballots still left to be counted. In Scioto County, Wulsin received 8,667 votes to Schmidt's 5,122.

The local board distributed 4,590 absentee votes and were to begin counting them early on Election Day.

There are 841 provisional ballots in Scioto County, according to the Scioto County Board of Elections. Once counted, they will be included in the final vote count.

The amount of provisionals in the 2nd District was not known.

Board president Steve Mowery on Election Day said the board did not want thousands of provisional votes to have to count.

Because of new voter registration laws, a high number is possible throughout the district.

That's because those who did not have identification could vote provisionally, but had to provide identification after voting.

JEFF BARRON can be reached at (740) 353-3101, ext. 236.