The provisional ballots cast in Tuesday’s election will not have any impact on the outcome of any local races.
Of the 12 provisional ballots considered by the Board of Electors Friday afternoon, five were determined to have been cast legally with results added to the final count. Of those five, four were Republican ballots and one was a Democrat ballot.
Provisional ballots are a fail-safe for voters who showed up to the polls but couldn’t cast a ballot due to some type of error. They instead vote provisionally and then its decided later if the votes will be counted.
In the race for Democratic nominee for Butler County Court of Common Pleas Judge only six votes separated leader William “Wink” Robinson and second place candidate Jennifer Gilliland Vanasdale. Vanasdale challenged one of the three people that sit on the computational board.
The computational board is appointed by the Board of Electors to evaluate provisional and write-in ballots. The Board of Electors are appointed by the Butler County commissioners to overlook all results as a whole.
Following a hearing before a judge about that challenge, the Board of Electors was appointed to take over the provisional ballot count. Vanasdale then challenged one of the people that sit on that board along with the ability of a Butler County judge to rule on her challenges given pending litigation by her firm.
The Board moved ahead with their evaluation over the objections of Vanasdale’s legal counsel.
The Board also looked at the write-in votes and determined that none had any impact on the races close enough to be in question.