Lawrence County Board of Elections workers spent most of Saturday doing the official canvass for the Nov. 6 general election.

Part of that canvasss included validating, then counting, the 720 provisional ballots voted this time and adding in all valid absentee ballots that came in after election night.

Absentee ballots that are postmarked by Monday, Nov. 5, and received by this past Friday would be processed. Those ballots may come from civilians or members of the military.

The closest of the three county races was the one between Lawrence County Commissioner Freddie Hayes, a Republican, and Democrat Doug Malone. For most of election night Malone, who had served two terms as commissioner until he was defeated in November 2010, was ahead. Only when the last three precincts, all in the eastern end of the county, came in, did Hayes take the lead. With all 84 precincts counted, the final tally was 12,101 for Hayes and 11,816, for Malone or a 285-vote margin.

The next closest race was between Lawrence County Treasurer Stephen Burcham and his challenger, Republican Jerry Rowe. That race ended with Burcham taking the victory with a 686-vote margin.

The third county race was between incumbent Lawrence County Commissioner Bill Pratt and challenger Democrat Carl Robinson. Pratt won with a 2,340-vote margin.

While these results could be declared official Saturday after the canvass, the races for 90th and 93rd House seats were not because those races took in multiple counties.

The boards of election in some of those counties did not have their official canvass this weekend, according to Cathy Overbeck, BOE director. Those results will not be sent to the Ohio Secretary of State until later in the week, when those counties’ results come in.

All official results can be found on the Internet at www.electionsonthe.net.