Gov. Mike DeWine reiterated his prediction that President Donald Trump will win Ohio again and predicted that election results would come Tuesday night (November 3), setting him apart from state officials elsewhere.
DeWine said he sees no reason ballot counting will be delayed past Tuesday, noting that absentee ballots — which increased this year during the COVID-19 pandemic — would be counted first, WKYC reported.
“After 7:30 [p.m.], they can count those, they can put them in the machine and they can run them,” DeWine said. “The early numbers that will come back, those will be the absentee. One would expect at that point that [Joe] Biden will be ahead and the rest of the night, frankly, is the President trying to catch Biden. He either will or he won't. I think he will.”
DeWine previously said he predicted Trump would win Ohio as he did in 2016, hours ahead of the September 29 presidential debate between Trump and Biden at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
DeWine, who appeared on CNN on Election Day, stuck by his prediction in Trump’s favor, but anticipated a close call.
"I think it's going to be a very, very close race and I think the President squeaks it out," DeWine said. He continued later, “it's going to be a close race. The President won with a big margin last time. But I think he's going win this time. I think the intensity is there."
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