In a new twist in the already dramatic Montgomery County executive primary, 102 uncounted provisional ballots were identified during a precertification audit yesterday. The county’s Board of Elections announced the news in a press release.

Earlier this week, incumbent, Marc Elrich declared a preemptive victory in the Democratic primary after preliminary results showed him edging out two-time rival David Blair by just 42 votes. (Four years ago, when the two first faced off at the ballot for the executive seat, 77 votes separated the two.) Blair said earlier this week that he would call for a recount.

The margin could be even tighter, and the Board of Elections say it is unlikely they can certify results by today.

Before certifying results, the Board of Elections conducts a precertification audit to inspect a random sample of ballot envelopes and compare the total number of voters who cast a ballot against the number of ballots scanned. 

“[On Thursday,] we pulled our random sample of empty provisional ballot envelopes for audit and were unable to locate one of the randomly selected envelopes where it should have been,” Montgomery County’s Acting Election Director, Alysoun McLaughlin, says in a statement. “In addition, we were unable to resolve a discrepancy between the number of provisional ballots that our staff had recommended that the Board accept, and the number of ballots scanned.”

This discovery led auditors to find the 102 unopened, sealed provisional ballots. The Board of Elections emphasized that the discovery of the ballots is evidence of the integrity of the process.

“I want to emphasize that Maryland’s comprehensive precertification audit was designed to identify issues like this before an election is certified to ensure the accuracy of the results. It worked as intended,” McLaughlin wrote.

McLaughlin said the review of the audit would continue to ensure there are no other discrepancies. 

“This is what the final audit process is for,” said Aaron Kraut, a spokesman for Blair’s campaign, in an emailed statement. “We continue to be confident in the process and appreciative of the Board of Elections and staff for their diligence and commitment to ensure every vote is counted.”

During an appearance on WAMU’s The Politics Hour on Friday, Elrich said that he thinks 80% of the newly discovered ballots are from the Democratic primary. He anticipates The final vote count likely won’t come in until tomorrow, “I figured this will split like other things have pretty narrowly,” Elrich said.

Counties must certify results by the second Friday after an election under Maryland law — that’s today. The Board of Elections had planned to certify results by today, but it is unclear if that will be possible. 

The Montgomery County Board of Elections will meet at 11 a.m. Saturday at its headquarters in Gaithersburg to canvas and process the 102 ballots and prepare certification. At 3 p.m. tomorrow, the county’s BOE will certify the official results, and on Monday the state Board of Elections will meet to perform their own certification of the results.

This story has been updated with a statement from David Blair, quotes from Marc Elrich on The Politics Hour, and information on the Board of Elections’ certification process. It has also been updated to correct that it is the Montgomery County Board of Elections that announced the new ballots.