Sabrina Harrison had a short distance to travel to vote in the Saranac Lake village election on Tuesday. She works upstairs in the Harrietstown Town Hall as the town clerk. When she voted at around 2 p.m., there were around 240 people who had voted since polls opened at noon. Polls closed at 9 p.m. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

SARANAC LAKE — The wait continues …

Though the official results of the Tuesday Saranac Lake village trustee election — which was too close to call on election night — were expected to be finalized on Friday, village Clerk Amanda Hopf said candidates, voters and villagers will have to wait until Monday to learn which candidates will fill two open board seats.

With four candidates on the ballot having vote totals within one 40-vote range, village election officials sent the ballots to the Franklin County Board of Elections for a recount on Wednesday morning.

Franklin County Republican Election Commissioner Tracy Sparks said they started the recount on Friday but had to stop half-way through because of a more urgent deadline for prescanning absentee ballots for the April 2 presidential primary before early voting begins today.

The results will need to be finalized by the end of the day on Monday, since that is the last day in the five-day window the county has to certify the election by. Sparks said Sunday is not included in that five-day total.

Sparks said they finished the recanvass portion, which involves taking the vote totals from the two voting machines and adding them to the totals from 82 absentee ballots cast in the election.

But they still need to do a hand count, which involved counting every ballot — including the 892 cast by machine — one at a time.

According to Sparks, going through a total of 974 ballots and making tick marks for each vote cast on each one takes quite some time.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Franklin County Democratic Deputy Election Commissioner Eric Barney quipped. “You should try it sometime.”

Recounts are required when candidates are within 20 votes of each other, due to the passage of a new state law passed a few years ago.

The unofficial numbers divulged on election night came with the caveat that they are potentially subject to change. They will not be official until the county does its recount.

There were a total of 892 ballots cast in Saranac Lake on Election Day, and 82 absentee ballots returned out of 105 issued for a total of 974 ballots.

Independently affiliated Sean Ryan, who ran on the Republican and independent “Sean Ryan for Saranac Lake” party lines, had an unofficial tally of 481 votes.

Democrat Aurora White, who ran on the Democratic and independent “Team Saranac Lake” party lines, had an unofficial tally of 477 votes.

Democrat Paul Van Cott, who ran on the Democratic and independent “Team Saranac Lake” party lines, had an unofficial tally of 460 votes.

Independently affiliated Katie Stiles, who ran on the Republican and independent “Integrity for Saranac Lake” party lines, had an unofficial tally of 445 votes.

Fred Balzac, a Democrat, ran a write-in campaign and gathered 34 votes.