Provisional ballots found 3 weeks after election change outcome

  George Sarantou has conceded in the contest for Lucas County commissioner in Northwest Ohio. Many odd circumstances in this election occurred, including the fact that Sarantou was ahead by 1400 votes on election night, but 4000 provisional ballots mysteriously appeared on November 22, putting Sarantou's Democrat opponent Contrada ahead by, oddly, 193 votes.
  Indeed election officials took their time reviewing the ballots; Lucas County Elections Director Linda Howe had not validated the ballots by December 6, even though Contrada was declared the winner. The Republicans on the Board of Elections appeared to be somewhat lethargic.
  MyFoxToledo:

Sarantou had led by nearly 1,400 votes on election night, until the Lucas County Board of Elections officials added more than 4,000 provisional ballots to the mix. Counting those provisional ballots during the official vote tally made Democrat Carol Contrada the winner of the November election by a mere 193 votes.

  Sarantou was denied access to the ballots; he claims that when he finally gained access through a court challenge, many of the provisional ballots showed irregularities. Here is his statement, as he withdrew his legal challenge because, even if the election were invalidated, the Lucas County Democrat party would have placed another Democrat in the seat anyway.
  His statement follows, reposted from the MyFoxToledo website. It might be noted that this race caused limited excitement in Northwest Ohio, given that Lucas County is such a solidly blue area. 
  For this reason, Republicans generally ignore campaigning here, as do Democrats. 
  There is no easy corridor from Northwest Ohio to the capitol city of Columbus. Even when the light rail was planned, only the 3 c's of Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland were included in the north to south path.
  It might be noted, also, that the discovery of mysterious provisional ballots around the country (1, 2, 3, 4, CLOSE THE DOOR) isn't that, shall we say, unusual, when it comes to winning rotten highly contested races.
  Sarantou:

  "Today I made the difficult but correct decision to stop my challenge to the Lucas County Commissioner election. I did so because I believe it is the right thing to do for the community and myself.  

On election night, the Board of Elections announced that I led by 1376 votes. Three weeks later, after counting the provisional ballots from the election, the Board reversed those results and announced that Carol Contrada won the election by the thin margin of 193 votes. 

Since that time, I have wanted to understand what happened, because the candidates, and more importantly the voters and the entire community, have the right to know how elections are handled and to be certain that the results are accurate and reliable. I asked the Board of Elections then to permit my representatives to review the provisional-ballot envelopes but was told they would not be made available. I tried other methods to find out what happened and to ensure that the provisional ballots were handled correctly, but the Board of Elections was steadfast in refusing my requests. After waiting to the last possible day, in the hope that the Board would change its mind, I filed my election contest. I said at the time, and it remains true, that I did so only because I wanted a fair and impartial review of the election, which the entire community deserves. 

Even then, I had to fight the Board to gain access to the envelopes. Eventually, Judge Stacy Cook ruled that my team could see them, and we spent hundreds of hours reviewing them. We finished that work early this morning. 

I have accomplished what I set out to from the beginning. I have been permitted to review the ballots. They show what I suspected --- The Board counted many ballots that should not have been counted and, in addition, there are hundreds of envelopes that did not comply with the law. We have reviewed all of the provisional envelopes, it is apparent that the system needs to be improved to ensure that provisional balloting does not undermine the integrity and reliability of our elections. 

I believe in my heart that I won this election. But given the law on the subject, the only way I could show that in court would be to call individual voters to ask them how they voted, and I respect the rights of voters to vote privately, which is a hallmark of our democracy. 

If I didn't choose that path, all I would accomplish by going forward would be to have the election vacated. In that event, Ms. Contrada would have been appointed County Commissioner by the Lucas County Democratic Party, because the law does not permit the Judge to order a new election. 

While I think the public is entitled to know about its elections, I do not want to drag the community through a trial and contribute to the cynicism of the public about the political process, only to have that hollow result. 

As I weighed my options, I concluded that the best thing for the community and me was to stop the contest. 

  Dayton Daily News reports that Ohio's new Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted will review the election results. Election officials claim they were just following the orders of then Secretary of State and Soros acolyte Jennifer Brunner.

  The Blade also covered this here. Oddly, pollworker error was blamed for some problems, so the votes were still counted.