LISBON — When the Columbiana County Board of Elections certifies the final tally of votes next week, the results will include 52 provisional ballots approved eligible Monday.

The official canvass, however, won’t include 15 provisional ballots rejected after being deemed ineligible or 21 absentee ballots that came late or were returned blank.

“More than likely, we’re going to have a few recounts,” county Board of Elections Director Kim Fusco said during her report to the board.

She won’t know for sure how many recounts or what races will be affected until the official canvass is certified when the board meets at 1:30 p.m. Nov. 25 since there’s no way of knowing how the provisional ballots will affect the numbers. Provisional ballots are ballots that have to be checked if the person moved or changed their name.

The board agreed Monday to allow election personnel to conduct any necessary recounts starting at 9 a.m. Dec. 1, with a meeting set for 4 p.m. Dec. 2 to certify the results of the recounts. A recount is required if the margin between candidates is less than one-half of 1%, Deputy Director Niki Wilkinson said.

Fusco also told board members that any three recounts will count as the required audit of the overall results so they won’t have to do a separate audit. During each election cycle, the state requires an audit of a percentage of the results.

When asked where possible recounts could occur, she stressed that she’s looking at the numbers from Election Night and there could be more or there could be less after the official results are certified.

According to the unofficial results, some of the possible races that could be affected include: Lisbon village council, where only four votes separate Susan Temple and Joe Vitko, with Temple getting the nod Election Night as fourth in a race for four seats with 201 votes and Vitko fifth with 197 votes; Salineville village council, where only two votes separate Teddy Mitchell and Nancy Needham, with Mitchell fourth in a race for four seats with 87 votes and Needham fifth with 85 votes; Fairfield Township, where the race for two trustee seats is close, with Bob Hum at 844, David Vollnogle at 835, Jared Work at 821 and Logan Cope at 820; Perry Township, where the race for two trustee seats between the second and third vote-getters is close with Russ Sinsley at 1,224 and Jim Armeni Sr. at 1,203; and West Township, where the race for two trustee seats is close with Glenn Whiteleather at 306, Martin Merrick at 299 and Elton Lowmiller at 298.

The reasons for the rejection of 15 ineligible provisional ballots were that seven were not registered to vote anywhere in the state of Ohio, two voted in the wrong precinct, one failed to sign the envelope and five failed to provide identification on Election Day or bring identification to the election office in Lisbon in the time allotted within four days of Election Day.

For the rejected absentee ballots, 19 came in the mail postmarked too late or arriving too late and two were returned from nursing homes but the voters refused to vote, with the ballots sent back unvoted.

mgreier@mojonews.com