The race for the second Republican nomination for Butler County commissioner hasn’t been finalized following last week’s primary.

With only two votes separating Kim Geyer, who came in second place and has a spot on the Nov. 3 ballot, from Bob O’Neill, who came in third and as of now will not be on the fall ballot, the provisional ballots could make a difference.

Shari Brewer, director of elections, said this is the closest commissioner race she can remember.

“As far as I can recall, yes,” Brewer said.

The election board was to meet at 1:30 p.m. today to discuss the provisional ballots, which are used to record a vote when there are questions about a voter’s eligibility.

County solicitor Mike English said the board will go through the 27 provisional ballots — 11 Republican, five Democratic and 11 with no listed party — individually and decide if they should be counted.

If anyone at the meeting objects to a ballot, a hearing will be held at 9 a.m. Friday in the public meeting room. If the people objecting to the ballots are not satisfied at the hearing, they have two days to file an objection in Butler County Court.

If there are no objections, the ballots can be counted today.

The election board normally is made up of the three county commissioners. However, since Jim Eckstein was running for re-election, President Judge Thomas Doerr replaced him with Bob Moyer.

Later, commissioners Bill McCarrier and Dale Pinkerton recused themselves from the board, and they were replaced by former county judges Martin O’Brien and George Hancher.

According to unofficial results, Leslie Osche of Butler Township received 4,755 votes, or 14.7 percent of the GOP votes, and Geyer of Adams Township received 4,283 votes, or 13.3 percent.

O’Neill of Cranberry Township came in third with 4,281 votes.

The election board’s canvasing board also started tallying write-in votes Friday, although those results will take some time to complete.

Write-in candidates who receive the most votes in a particular race will be added to the ballot in November if the candidates received enough votes to match the mandatory number of signatures required to be on the ballot.

Osche and the second GOP candidate will face Democrats Jerry Johnston of Butler Township and Kevin Boozel of Mercer Township in the Nov. 3 general election.