With 168 provisional ballots counted, Ironton City Council is one of five countywide races whose results have generated an automatic recount.

That was determined Thursday evening as the Lawrence County Board of Elections certified the results of the Nov. 3 races.

The other races are Rome Township Trustee, Upper Township Trustee, Hamilton Township Trustee and South Point school board.

The top Ironton council vote getters picked up only a handful more votes with the margins remaining as close as they were on election night.

First time office-seeker, Dave Frazer picked up three more votes over Leo Johnson, whom he still appears to have knocked off the council. The latest count gives Frazer 1,246 and Johnson 1,233.

Former Ironton police officer Beth Rist stays in third place with 1,260, picking up 19 additional votes. New figures have Mike Lutz at 1,541 and Bob Cleary at 1,366.

Frazer was among the few candidates who showed up at the election board’s office for the provisional count.

“I’ll just wait and see,” he said about the recount. “I think it will go good.”

Another closely watched race has been newcomer Michael McDaniels’ challenge of veteran officeholder Don Klaiber for Upper Township Trustee.

On election night Klaiber took the second of two openings on the board beating out McDaniels by two votes. Robert Ackerman remains the top vote-getter with 1,492.

However with the new votes added, Klaiber and McDaniels are now tied at 1,271.

McDaniels also came to Thursday’s count.

“It’s been a good race,” he said. “He’s been on for 24 years. I am on my first time. I am very pleased.”

The race for the second of two spots on South Point Board of Education retains its one-vote difference for Les York and Rose Christian.

Latest figures keep Rita Vance as the top vote getter with 1,071; Les York is in the second spot with 1,070 while Christian comes in third at 1,069.

Brian Pinkerman in the race for Rome Township Trustee picked up two votes from Thursday’s count, giving him 900 votes, six under longtime trustee Dean Cooper.

Cooper’s totals remain at 906, the same figure as on election night.

Top-vote getter Mark Bailey added five more to his total, now at 1,241.

Other races that could have triggered an automatic recount, but did not were Athalia Village Council, Aid Township and Elizabeth Township.

Winners in those races are Lester Brumfield Sr., Benjamin Keeney, Ervin Napier Jr. and Debra Evans for Athalia council; Brian Pancake and George Gabriel Patterson for Aid Township; and Ron Davis and Brian Kidd for Elizabeth Township.

The five recounts will begin at noon Monday, Nov. 30 at the board of election offices.