YOUNGSTOWN — The race for Mahoning County commissioner is headed for a recount, with incumbent Democrat Carol Rimedio-Righetti holding a slim but likely insurmountable lead over Republican Geno DiFabio.

The outcome certified Monday by the board has Rimedio-Righetti beating DiFabio 42,569 to 42,432. The 137 votes is a margin of victory of 0.16 of a percent.

The state requires automatic recounts if a margin of victory is within 0.5 of a percent.

The recount is scheduled for Dec. 7.

Tom McCabe, director of the elections board, said the recount won’t change the results certified Monday. If Rimedio-Righetti’s lead was a vote or two a recount could have potentially changed the outcome, he said.

“In my 24 years here, rarely do we see the recount change the certification,” he said.

McCabe said it has happened only once and that was in a township race in which one vote was changed in the recount of a tie.

David Betras, board chairman, marveled at the closeness of the commissioner’s race.

“When people say their vote doesn’t matter, you can tell them that 137 votes matter,” he said. “One vote does matter; 137 votes could have changed the race from a winner to a loser.”

Before 1,250 outstanding absentee and provisional ballots were included in the official Mahoning County count Monday — with all but 37 casting ballots in the commissioner’s race — Rimedio-Righetti was ahead 41,996 to 41,792. The 204 votes was a 0.24 of a percent margin of victory.

Of the votes counted Monday, DiFabio picked up 640 to 573 for Rimedio-Righetti.

After the vote was certified, Rimedio-Righetti said: “I did win. I know it’s 137 votes, but it’s still a win. I do want to thank my supporters and the voters for being there for me. We have to wait until Dec. 7 and hopefully it will stay the same. Mahoning County is stable. Everything in Mahoning County is working very well — budgets, everything. So those people did see through that and they voted and I appreciate all of their help.”

DiFabio wasn’t ready to give up.

He said: “They’ve got to do a recount. It’s still not over. The election just won’t end. The reason we’re here, the reason why it’s 137 votes, is because the people in this community are not satisfied with their government and they’re looking to change it. Today, it was 137 votes short. There will be another day. I’m not going anywhere.”

Board of elections employees will count by hand at least 5 percent of the ballots — voting precincts randomly selected Monday — and compare that outcome to those counted on the optical scanners. If the totals are the same, the results are certified.

The Dec. 7 recount will start around 9 a.m. and the board is expected to meet between 3 and 4 p.m. to vote on the outcome.

If they are different, another hand count of those precincts is done and compared to the scanners. If those are different, a third round is held and if it is still not the same, all of the ballots are recounted by hand.

The only other close race in Mahoning County was for a 6-mill additional levy for fire protection in Beloit.

Including outstanding absentee and provisional ballots counted Monday, it lost 151 to 146. That is a defeat of 1.68 percent, which is outside the amount needed for an automatic recount.

Before five votes were added to the official count, the tax issue was losing 148 to 144 as of Nov. 8, Election Day.

Of the 1,605 outstanding absentee ballots in the county, only 102 were included in the official count, McCabe said.

An overwhelming majority never sent the ballot back to the board, he said. Also, 142 arrived at the board after the Nov. 18 deadline, he said.

Outstanding absentee ballots are those requested by voters by mail that didn’t arrive at boards of elections until after Election Day. Those ballots had to be postmarked by Nov. 7, the day before Election Day, and arrive at the board no later than Nov. 18.

There were also 1,306 provisional ballots with 1,148 considered valid Monday by the board of elections and included in the final count.

Of the 158 provisionals rejected Monday by the board, 106 of them came from people not registered to vote, McCabe said.

The rest were: 13 who voted in the wrong precinct and wrong polling location, 10 who voted in the wrong county with most being former Mahoning County residents, eight failed to produce proper identification, seven voted two times, four had signatures on ballot envelopes that were significantly different than what is on file at the board, three had Social Security numbers that didn’t match, three had the wrong address, two provided no information on their ballot envelope and two others turned in envelopes without a ballot, McCabe said.

At Betras’ recommendation, the board voted 4-0 to refer the four ballots with different signatures to the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office for criminal investigation.

“We either disenfranchised four voters or four people committed voter fraud,” said Betras, who wants to find out what happened.

The seven who voted twice had previously voted by mail and were unsure if their ballots arrived at the elections board so they voted provisional, McCabe said.

“We don’t think it’s an issue,” he said. “We’re not concerned that they did anything illegal. They were concerned the ballots they mailed wouldn’t arrive. We get that with every election.”

Provisional ballots are used when the names or addresses of people don’t match their voter registration information with boards of elections as well as if voters don’t have proper identification when voting, their names don’t appear on the official poll list, they already requested an absentee ballot or if signatures, in the opinion of precinct officers, do not match the signatures on registration forms, among other scenarios.