News Release
Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced today that Ohio’s 88 county board of elections have successfully completed an expedited canvass of the 2024 general election by submitting their final vote counts to the Office of the Ohio Secretary of State. By law, Secretary LaRose has 10 days to formally certify the election. Because the 10th day falls on a Saturday, the Secretary will formally certify Ohio’s statewide election results on Monday, December 2, 2024.
“With near-historic turnout, this presidential election was the smoothest Ohio has experienced in state history,” said Secretary LaRose. “That’s due in large part to the work of our frontline bipartisan election officials, who worked hard to get ready and then got the job done when it mattered. Their work doesn’t end on Election Day, as they’ve been busy completing the ballot reconciliation process and tabulating the final numbers. They’ll soon be doing post-election audits to check the accuracy of those results, but once again, we’ve confirmed this work can be done efficiently and transparently without the ridiculous delays we’re still seeing in other states.”
To ensure all post-election activities are complete in time for the 56th Electoral College of Ohio on December 17, Secretary LaRose issued Directive 2024-22 in September requiring all boards to complete their official canvass by November 20. Prior to the final statewide certification, official results can be found on the county boards of elections’ websites. Now that counties have completed their certified results, boards of elections will turn to the important work of conducting post-election audits. This process assigns a bipartisan team of Republicans and Democrats to compare tabulated results to a hardcopy paper trail to ensure fidelity between the two. Unlike other states, Secretary LaRose has required audits to be completed after every election.
In accordance with Ohio law, an automatic recount is ordered if the result is within .5%. The final reported margin of .64 percent falls outside of Ohio’s statutory requirement for an automatic recount.
