The Butler County Computation Return Board on Friday, Nov. 7, began the painstaking process of counting write-in votes and provisional ballots that were submitted for Tuesday’s election.

The three-member board worked with Chantell McCurdy, county election bureau director, and other staff to assess and count 17,863 write-in votes and 215 provisional ballots. The board members are Anne Baker, attorney Pat Casey and Carol Knox. Solicitor Julie Graham also was present.

The results and their impacts on the outcome of the election will not be known until Thursday at the earliest, McCurdy said.

Counting provisional ballots was the first task for the board Friday. The board was expected to finish counting those ballots and begin counting the write-in votes Friday and finish Monday, she said.

After the ballots are counted, the bureau notifies the state that the count is finished in what is known as the first signing, she said.

When those results become publicly available, a five-day window opens for challenges to be filed in court. If no challenges are filed, the bureau certifies the results and sends them to the state in the second signing, she said.

McCurdy said the number of provisional ballots was incorrectly counted on Election Day. The original number of 218 was provided late after the polls closed, and in-person and absentee ballots were counted. The actual number is 215, she said.

Provisional ballots are given to voters at the polls for a number of reasons, including when they go to the wrong polling place, when poll workers question a voter’s eligibility to vote or when the voter believes there is a problem with their absentee or mail-in ballot.