Hocking County voters chose the Republican candidate in every contested partisan race on the November 3 ballot, according to unofficial results from the Hocking County Board of Elections — a sweep the Hocking County Republican Party is celebrating as the county moves toward certifying its results later this month. The party’s rundown of winners runs, in its words, “from the courthouse all the way up the ticket.”
At the courthouse, Tony Wheeler won the Hocking County commissioner race with 64.26 percent of the vote, according to the unofficial results cited by the Hocking County Republican Party. Chris Robers won election as Hocking County auditor, and Jayme Hartley Fountain — the Pickaway County prosecutor chosen by Republican central committees across the 14-county Fourth District to replace the late Judge Peter B. Abele — won a seat on the Fourth District Court of Appeals, the party reported.
Up the ticket, the party’s winners list includes U.S. Representative Dave Taylor, Auditor of State-elect Frank LaRose, State Representative Mark Johnson and State Senator Shane Wilkin. LaRose’s win fits the statewide picture that emerged on November 3: he was the one Republican to win a statewide office on a night when Ohio voters elected Democrats to seven of the eight statewide offices and approved Issue 3, the photo ID constitutional amendment, by a wide margin.
All of those Hocking County results remain unofficial until the county board of elections completes its official canvass. Under Ohio Secretary of State Directive 2026-48, which governs the canvass and certification of the November 3, 2026 general election, boards must begin the official canvass no earlier than November 8 and no later than November 18, and must complete the canvass and certify no later than Tuesday, November 24, 2026.
The official canvass is where provisional and late-arriving absentee ballots that qualify under Ohio law are counted and the election-night tallies are reconciled precinct by precinct. In a county where the headline races were decided by comfortable margins — Wheeler’s 64.26 percent among them — certification is expected to confirm rather than change the outcomes, but no result is final in Ohio until the board signs the certification forms and transmits them to the Secretary of State.
What happens next is that deadline: the Hocking County Board of Elections, at 93 West Hunter Street in Logan, must finish its official canvass and certify by November 24. Winners of the courthouse races then prepare to take office in the new year, and NewsForce247 will update its Hocking County coverage when the certified figures are filed.
Photo: Tim Kiser, CC BY-SA 2.5