In a sharply worded ruling that placed blame squarely on Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, U.S. District Judge Algenon L. Marbley ordered yesterday that specific provisional ballots cannot be discarded as final tabulation of last week’s election returns begins.

Marbley said that Husted broke Ohio law, violated a court consent order and acted in a “ surreptitious manner” in issuing an order the weekend before the Nov. 6 election.