By Steve Kemme
The Cincinnati Enquirer

BATAVIA - Tom Niehaus picked up four votes against Jean Schmidt in Clermont County's ballot recount of the March 2 Republican primary race for the 14th District Ohio Senate seat.

But the winner won't be known until Friday, when all five counties in the district will have completed their recounts. The last county will be Scioto.

In the district's canvass tallies released on March 26, Niehaus led Schmidt by 26 votes, 17,092 to 17,066.

In Clermont County, he led 10,089 to 9,940. The Clermont recount results this week changed the totals to 10,093 to 9,940.

The winner of the primary will be a strong favorite over the Democratic candidate, Paul Schwietering, who has never held public office.

Niehaus and Schmidt said they had no objections to the Clermont County Board of Elections' recount process.

The voters had used pencils to darken circles next to the name of their candidate of choice.

With representatives for each candidate looking over their shoulders, eight elections board staff members conducting this week's recount inspected all the ballots and ran them through an optical scanner.

Niehaus, of New Richmond, and Schmidt, of Miami Township, are currently state representatives.

"They were very professional and very thorough," Niehaus said.

Besides Clermont and Scioto, the other counties in the 14th Ohio Senate District are Brown, Adams and Lawrence. Clermont is the most populous county in the district.

E-mail skemme@enquirer.com