The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections on Friday officially certified the results of the May 7 primary elections. However, one hotly contested issue still officially remains too close to call.
With 100% of precincts reporting on election night, results showed Parma's controversial pit bull ban being upheld by a mere 21 votes. Officials stressed though that the results were still unofficial, with several provisional and mail-in ballots still yet to be counted.
Now, 80 more votes have been added to the final tally, meaning nearly 12,000 people made their voices heard on what is known as Issue 10. The final results still show residents choosing to uphold the ban, but the margin has decreased now to only 14 votes (5,935 to 5,921).
By percentage, the margin of victory is just .12%, which means the race isn't over quite yet. Under state law, all local elections with a margin of victory of .5% or less must undergo an automatic recount. Ohio Revised Code 3515.04 states such recounts will be conducted by hand at the board of elections in front of all who wish to observe. Cuyahoga County has set the recount for this coming Wednesday, May 29.
As evidenced by the closeness of the race, the debate over Issue 10 has been contentious from the start, and some even said the wording of the measure was confusing ("yes" voted to repeal the ban, while "no" voted to uphold it). Several localities, such as Lakewood and Rocky River, have done away with similar breed-specific bans in the past year.
