Supporters of 15th Congressional District candidate Steve Stivers have won their fight to not count about 1,000 provisional ballots in a lawsuit against Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled 4 to 2 that Brunner (D) "abused her discretion by providing different counties with differing instructions on whether these ballots should be counted," the court wrote in its decision. 

The court said Brunner's directive instructing the Franklin County Board of Elections to count provisional ballots that lacked  signatures or had names and signatures in the wrong places were "unreasonable."

These 1,000 provisional ballots will not be counted by the Franklin County elections board. Now that the legal wrangling has stopped the board can begin to count the 27,000 provisional ballots that have been on hold as legal challenges mounted over whether or not they're proper.

All provisional ballots have been cast in Franklin County, but not necessarily the 15th Congressional District, which is located only partially in the county. 

Kilroy communications director Brad Bauman accused the court of disenfranchising voters.

"Today the Ohio Supreme Court ordered the Franklin County Board of Elections to disenfranchise over one thousand eligible voters," he said in a statement. "These voters passed every eligibility requirement, voted appropriately in their polling place and are entitled to have their voices heard. This unfortunate decision deprives them of one of their most basic rights as citizens: the right to vote. Regardless, it is now time to count the remaining provisional ballots and bring an end to this long election night." 

Stivers (R-Columbus) campaign manager Michael Hartley said the court did the right thing. 

“We are pleased with the Court’s decision, and that Ohio law will be followed. The signature requirement is the voter’s affirmation that they will not commit vote fraud, and has proven to be an essential tool for law enforcement to identify illegally cast votes.  As the Franklin County Board of Elections can now begin to tally the remaining uncounted ballots in this tight race, Central Ohioans should take comfort in knowing that their vote will not be canceled out by people with no legal right to vote in this election.”

Stivers leads Kilroy in an unofficial count by about 600 votes.