Provisional ballots must be counted in a tight congressional race in central Ohio, one of the last undecided contests in the nation, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley could affect the outcome of the race between Republican Steve Stivers and Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy in the 15th District. But his ruling was immediately appealed, and provisional-vote counting was put on hold for another week.

Stivers' lead grew to 479 votes over Kilroy on Thursday, after one county finished its official count. The two are running to succeed retiring Republican Deborah Pryce, who only narrowly beat Kilroy in 2006.

The case before Marbley involved ballots cast in Franklin County, the largest and most Democratic-leaning in the district.

"This case touches on the most fundamental of rights of American citizens: the right to vote," Marbley said.

Provisional ballots are issued at polls to people who believe they have been wrongly denied the right to vote. About 1,000 ballots are in dispute in the House race because of defects such as voters failing to both print and sign their names.

Marbley's ruling came in a lawsuit filed last week by supporters of Stivers, who argued the ballots were invalid because they were missing either a printed name or a signature, or the two were interchanged on ballot envelopes.

In his ruling, the judge said that the plaintiffs never disputed that voters who used the provisional ballots were eligible, properly registered and voted in the correct precinct, and that not counting the ballots would disenfranchise legitimate voters. Continued...