By Kimberly Gasuras

The official count of votes from last Tuesday’s election will take place Nov. 21 beginning at 9 a.m. at the Crawford County Board of Elections.

The official count includes certifying and then counting the provisional ballots that were cast.

“There are 93 provisional ballots and 33 are in the City of Bucyrus,” said Ruth Leuthold, director of the board of elections.

According to the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office, a provisional ballot is used when a voter’s eligibility is in question and the voter would otherwise not be permitted to vote at his or her polling place. The content of a provisional ballot is the same as all other ballots.

Any of the following scenarios would require that a provisional ballot be cast on Election Day:

If a person’s name does not appear on the official poll list for that precinct, or an election official asserts that the person is not eligible to vote or is unable to determine the person’s eligibility.

If a person could not provide proper identification such as an Ohio driver’s license or state identification card, military identification, other current and valid photo identification, or a current (within the last 12 months) utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck or other government document (other than a notice of voter registration mailed by a board of elections) that shows the voter’s name and current address.

A person’s name appears on the official poll list for that precinct as having already requested an absentee ballot.

A person’s name is marked on the poll list or signature book with a notation that certain registration mailings have been returned as undeliverable.

A voter registration has been challenged and/or a hearing on a challenge to a voter’s eligibility as an elector has been postponed until after Election Day.

If a person’s signature, in the opinion of the precinct officers, does not match the signature on the registration form.

A person has changed their name but did not change it with the board of elections. The person needs to then provide election officials proof of a legal name change such as a marriage license or a court order that includes current and prior names.

Leuthold said the deadline for documentation to be turned into to the board of elections for provisional ballots cast last Tuesday is Nov. 14.

“If the person already provided the last four digits of their social security number, that is sufficient,” Leuthold said.

The board of elections will rule on the eligibility of each of the provisional ballots during their meeting on Nov. 21 and all eligible ballots will be entered into the official count.

Leuthold said there are three close races from Tuesday’s election, but none are eligible for a recount at this point and that an automatic recount is only completed when the results of a race are within one-half of one percent.

“That could change due to the provisional ballots,” Leuthold said.

The three close races include the North Robinson levy, the Bucyrus City Council-at-Large race and the Bucyrus City Council President race.

Kurt Fankhauser, who lost by 23 votes to incumbent Garnet “Sis” Love for council president, has stated that if the race is not eligible for a recount by the board, he will pay to have the recount completed.

“The cost is $60 per precinct and then there is a formula after it is done and there could be an amount of that refunded,” Leuthold said.

For more information, visit https://sites.google.com/site/crawfordboe/home.