LISBON — The Columbiana County Board of Elections on Tuesday approved 19 eligible provisional ballots to be counted when election personnel conduct the official canvass of ballots Thursday for the May 6 election.

Once the results are certified by the board, which is set to meet at 4 p.m. Thursday, then a determination will be made on whether a recount will be necessary in the county Municipal Court judge race.

Danielle Menning of Leetonia, a county assistant prosecutor, won on election night with 50.16 % of the vote, beating appointed Judge Kelly Linger by 28 votes according to the unofficial results from the county Board of Elections. Both were seeking the Republican nomination. No Democrat filed for the Jan. 1 seat.

In order for there to be an automatic recount, the margin must be less than half of 1%. If it doesn’t qualify for an automatic recount, a candidate can request a recount, but at their expense.

During the board meeting Tuesday, besides accepting 19 provisional ballots to be included in the official count, board members rejected a total of five provisional ballots. Two of the voters weren’t registered anywhere in the state, two voted in the wrong precinct and one failed to provide identification.

Board of Elections Director Kim Fusco explained that out of the 19 provisional ballots accepted, one was accepted partially because the voter was in the wrong precinct, but in the right polling place at a church in Salem.

“In that case, it was literally the right church,” board member Charley Kidder quipped.

Under Ohio law, Fusco said a provisional ballot cast in the wrong precinct of a multi-precinct polling location may be eligible to be counted. In the case of a polling place with a single precinct, voting in the wrong precinct makes the ballot ineligible to be counted.

For the voter who failed to provide identification, Fusco said the voter had four days after the election to provide a photo identification at the board office in Lisbon, but never appeared. so their ballot doesn’t count. Four forms of photo ID are accepted, including a driver’s license, state ID, military ID or passport.

The board also rejected five absentee ballots, with two received too late, one refused, one for no ID and one who voted in the office and attempted to vote absentee by mail also. Fusco said they received 18 absentee ballots after Election Day. To be counted, an absentee ballot mailed had to be postmarked by May 5, the day before the election. One ballot was refused at a nursing home by a voter who apparently didn’t want to vote. One never sent documentation for ID, even after being told it was necessary.

The one who attempted to vote twice was described as elderly at 91 years old. Only the first ballot cast at the office counted.

Board of Elections Chairman David Johnson called it an honest mistake.

“One person gets one ballot in our county. We have things in place to capture it,” Fusco said, regarding someone sending in an absentee ballot and voting in person.

After the certification Thursday, if a recount is determined to be necessary, the board will choose what precincts to count by hand representing 5 percent of the ballots cast in the Republican judge race. The rest of the ballots for the judge race will be run through the machine.

If there’s a recount, official observers will have to fill out a form as an official observer. The recount will be open to the public, with Johnson saying it’s “totally transparent, totally bipartisan.”

The hand counts will be done in teams of two, one Democrat and one Republican for each team. The two judge candidates will be notified and can attend if they want. If the recount is done, the board will then meet likely at 4 p.m. that day, tentatively set for May 27, to certify the recount results.

mgreier@mojonews.com