TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The votes may be in, but the work of making election results official is just getting started in Leon County as officials move from preliminary tallies to verification, recounts and certification.

Leon County Supervisor of Elections Mark S. Early said election night numbers are not final. “A lot of people think election night are like the final results, they are not even our first unofficial results they are preliminary results,” Early said. He said those totals do not include provisional ballots or “uncured vote by mail ballots,” adding, “We have to have all of our vote by mail ballots cured within two days.”

Early said ballots are accepted only until 7 p.m. on Election Day. After precincts turn in their ballots, the county must conform, recount and certify results.

“For primaries like this we certify the final results on the Tuesday after election day Tuesday so we have a week to get it done,” Early said.

During that week, staff will continue working long hours to ensure accuracy during tabulation, according to the supervisor’s office. Early said the county’s certification determines local winners, while statewide and multi-county races are handled at the state level. “We certify our results up to the state, The state takes the state wide races and the multi-county races and then they aggregate the results for those and then they certify the winners at the state level,” he said.

Early said more than 38 percent of registered voters in Leon County turned out for the primaries.

A close Tallahassee City Commission Seat 3 race is also triggering additional steps. Tom Der-zy-Polski and Talethia Edwards finished 24 votes apart, setting up a runoff on Nov. 3 and a recount this weekend.

“We will begin getting the ballots ready for the re-count to begin Saturday, and then we’ll be here likely all day Saturday, all day Sunday conducting the recount,” Early said. The recount will be open to the general public, according to the supervisor of elections.

Canvassing board meetings are scheduled for Thursday and Friday at 3 p.m., and recount work is set to begin Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m.