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FAIRBANKS -- In an Interior Alaska legislative race with two candidates separated by a single vote, the state is holding onto a single ballot that will only be added into the total during an anticipated recount.

Mike Kelly’s one-vote lead over challenger Karl Kassel will likely hold when the state Division of Elections certifies all general election results Wednesday.

Certification will open the door to a recount, where total votes are expected to fluctuate. The results are certain to change by at least one vote as an overseas absentee ballot received after the division’s deadline is finally counted.

The absentee ballot was postmarked by Nov. 4, but wasn’t delivered by the DOE’s Nov. 19 cutoff. Such ballots — and a few more could still arrive — are fair game during a recount, said Shelly Growden, the division’s election systems manager.

A candidate can request a recount after the election results are certified, likely Wednesday afternoon. The DOE has five days from a request to hold a recount, which should only take a day for District 7, Growden said. Kassel has said he would make that request.

A recount is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 9 in Juneau, Growden said.

During a recount, all ballots cast in District 7 would be fed through computer scanners again. The machines will be programmed to stop at each ballot where a mark isn’t detected. DOE officials would have to determine how the voter intended to mark the ballot, in case of a partially filled oval or a check instead of a bubble, Growden explained.

She anticipates a few marginally marked ballots to surface.

“I’ve been through a lot of recounts,” she said. “It’s not uncommon.”

On top of a machine recount, the DOE will conduct a hand-count to verify the computerized results.

Kelly, the Republican incumbent for the state house seat, led Kassel in election night results. However, more than a quarter of all votes cast in the District 7 race — absentee, early and question ballots — were set aside for counting post-election.

Kelly’s margin narrowed as those ballots added up, with Kassel collecting 4,999 votes to Kelly’s 5,000. A Nov. 25 count of 49 overseas absentee ballots and adjustments in two precinct totals by the State Review Board drew the final tally to 5,018 for Kelly and 5,017 for Kassel, astonishing both candidates as the one-vote margin held.