The race for the Salisbury seat on the Rowan-Salisbury School Board of Education took an unexpected turn on Thursday.

While Jonathan Barbee appeared to defeat Dr. Rebecca Childs after tallies were taken on Election Day, the margin was slim, a mere 39 votes.

Rowan County Board of Elections Director Sharon Main said that they had 199 provisional ballots which were approved and counted in addition to approximately 400 absentee ballots that arrived on Election Day.

“We don’t have time to scan those on Election Day,” Main said on Friday. “We always scan those right before certifying the election results.”

Main indicated that election boards have 10 days after the election to go through all their data and make sure everything is correct.

Initially, Barbee was ahead of Childs by 39 votes. That slim margin flipped to Childs’ favor following the count of additional ballots. Childs ultimately finished with 22,919 votes to Barbee’s 22,875. Child’s tally represents 40.3 percent of the electorate to Barbee’s 40.23 percent.

That margin falls within the window of a recount. Main said that they won’t know until Monday if a recount will be called because a candidate, in this case Barbee, will have to officially submit a written request for one.

Barbee indicated last week when it appeared that he was the victor, that he would support a recount if Childs called for one.

In a phone call on Friday, Barbee said that he intended to submit a recount request by the Monday deadline.

This is a developing story that will be updated as new information unfolds.