Photo by Michele Newbanks Karen Pawloski and Melissa Saltzwedel store ballots and applications away after the official election results were tallied Friday at the Washington County Board of Elections.

When the Washington County Board of Election reviewed the official primary election results Friday, it was found that one precinct will need to be automatically recounted, while another was close to a recount.

Additional ballots were voted on by the board, as ballots postmarked by April 27 were allowed 10 days to be received at the board office.

Mandy Amos, board director, said 144 ballots came in after the deadline.

“There were some we were able to count and some we could not. Some were postmarked after April 27,” she said.

There were an additional 107 provisional ballots that also had to be voted on and counted.

Most provisional ballots are due to name or address changes, which must be done 30 days before the election.

“The good news is that (the results of races) didn’t change with the provisional votes,” said Deputy Director Karen Pawloski.

Amos said once the board votes on the additional ballots, those that are accepted are run through the scanner and counted. No ballots from Election Day are rerun.

Precinct Belpre 4A will be automatically recounted because of additional votes.

In Belpre 4A, Kelly Cox ran against Leslie Pittenger for member of the county central committee. When the additional ballots were counted, both had an additional vote. If the result is one-half of 1 percent difference, which it was in this case, it qualifies for an automatic recount.

Salem’s precinct was close, but didn’t trigger an automatic recount.

Salem had two extra votes for William Close and Becky Kirkbride had one extra vote for member of the county central committee. The difference in votes was 0.76 percent.

The recount must be done by May 28. Board chairman Dennis Sipe said along with a hand count, that precinct should also be machine recounted.

A special recount meeting was scheduled for 8:30 a.m. next Friday.

Friday’s work took about three hours to complete, from start to finish.

“In November, it might be a little longer with the provisionals,” said Amos. “More people vote in the general than in the primary.”

At the beginning of the day, the board votes on each of the postmarked and provisional ballots. Those that are approved are counted. Then the final election results are run and are discussed by the board before they are signed.

“I really hope (next election) we have in-person voting,” said Pawloski. “It was amazing the board of election could do what they did. If it could go wrong, it did. We still had a good, fair, clean election.”

Ballots are kept for 60 days for local elections, but when state or federal races are voted on, the ballots are kept for 22 months. Once the ballots are no longer needed, they are taken to Globe Metallurgical in Beverly to be burned, Pawloski said.

Michele Newbanks can be reached at mnewbanks@mariettatimes.com.

At a glance:

• The Washington County Board of Elections certified the official primary election results Friday.

•Some 144 ballots came in after the deadline.

• The board counted 107 provisional ballots.

• One precinct, Belpre 4A, will be recounted due to added votes.

•A special recount meeting will be 8:30 a.m. next Friday.

Source: Washington County Board of Elections.