The gap between Kim Geyer and Bob O’Neill got smaller Tuesday afternoon.

In the race for the second spot on the Republican ballot for Butler County commissioner in the Nov. 3 election, Geyer now leads O’Neill by one vote after the county elections board considered provisional ballots.

The elections board approved six Republican ballots. The ballots, from the Butler City 1, Jefferson Township 1, Cranberry East 3, Concord Township and Adams Township 2 voting districts, included three votes for O’Neill and two votes for Geyer. Their vote totals now are 4,285 for Geyer and 4,284 for O’Neill.

Before this, Geyer of Adams Township led O’Neill of Cranberry Township by two votes, 4,283 to 4,281.

In the May 19 primary, Leslie Osche of Butler Township took the top GOP spot with 4,755 votes.

At Tuesday’s meeting, 13 more provisional ballots were contested, either by the board or attorneys representing Geyer or O’Neill. In total, there were 11 Republican provisional ballots, five Democratic and 11 with no listed party.

Provisional ballots are used to record a vote when there are questions about a voter’s eligibility.

The contested ballots will be discussed by the board at 9 a.m. Friday in the public meeting room at the county government building. If the board affirms these ballots, they will be counted.

County solicitor Mike English said that each voter who cast an objected ballot will receive overnight mail to let them know of the hearing and give them the opportunity to attend.

Republican provisional ballots from the Butler Township 1-2, Buffalo Township 2 and Brady Township precincts were recommended by county elections director Shari Brewer to be denied because the voters were not registered as Republicans, and the board voted to deny them.

However, Ronald Hicks Jr., an attorney representing O’Neill, contested this decision, saying that he believed that the voters’ registrations were changed due to an error by the elections bureau.

Hicks also contested a GOP ballot that the board denied from the Center Township 1 precinct. Brewer recommended denying that ballot because the voter did not sign an affidavit on the ballot’s envelope.

Hicks said that the voter’s signature appears elsewhere on the ballot and said he would like to talk to the voter to see if that person understood the instructions.

Of the ballots with an unknown party, the board voted to defer any discussion of three of them until Friday’s hearing when more information likely would be known about them.

The remaining eight ballots were denied on Brewer’s recommendation. But attorney’s contested six of the denials.

One ballot, from the Center Township 1 precinct, was cast by a registered Republican, but the voter did not sign the affidavit on the envelope. Hicks noted that the voter’s signature appeared elsewhere on the envelope.

“She shouldn’t be disenfranchised,” Hicks said.

He further challenged the denial of ballots from the Center Township 2, Cranberry West 6, Cranberry East 2 and Franklin Township precincts, saying that the voters either had their party affiliation changed in error or that they were registered to vote when the elections bureau said they were not.

Doug Linn, the attorney representing Geyer, objected to the decision to deny a ballot from the Clinton Township precinct, saying that he believed the registration was changed in error.

Four additional provisional ballots from the Cranberry West 2 precinct were discovered Friday, two days after the others were found. However, English said that the envelopes had ballots that are completely blank, with no information about the voters.

“We don’t know (anything about them,” he said.

Brewer recommended to deny these ballots, which the board did, with no objection from Linn or Hicks.

After the meeting, O’Neill said, “All we want to do is make sure every vote is counted.”

Geyer deferred comment to Linn, who said the process is working.

“We just have to get through it,” Linn said.

If there are any further objections after Friday’s hearing, people have two days to file objections in county court.

Osche and the second-place GOP candidate will face Democrats Jerry Johnston of Butler Township and Kevin Boozel of Mercer Township in the fall election. Those four candidates are competing for three commissioner seats.

Members of the elections board are retired county judges Martin O’Brien and George Hancher and Bob Moyer, retired director of county information technology.

It normally is made up of the three county commissioners, but Jim Ecsktein was replaced by Moyer because Ecsktein was running for re-election and Bill McCarrier and Dale Pinkerton recused themselves and were replaced by Hancher and O’Brien.