Counting absentee ballots cast for tax collector and chancery clerk continued a slow, delicate pace this morning with no dramatic lead changes.

Tax Collector Antonia Flaggs-Jones led Republican Patty Mekus by 114 votes — a gain of 13 since polls closed Tuesday night — when deputy circuit clerks began counting at about 8:45 a.m. Through 110 of at least 735 paper ballots, Flaggs-Jones had 7,295 votes to 7,181 for Mekus.

Donna Farris Hardy’s lead over Democrat Walter Osborne Jr. has shrunk by 10 votes, giving her 6,596 votes to Osborne’s 6,192. Clerks stopped Wednesday’s count in the county courtroom at the usual 5 p.m. closing time.

By 9 a.m., absentees and affidavits had been tallied from six of Warren County’s 22 precincts — Redwood, Bovina, Auditorium, 3-61, St. Aloysius and Brunswick.

Third- and fourth-place finishers for chancery clerk, Alecia Ashley and Gene Thompson, had increased their totals by five and one, respectively.

Affidavit ballots cast Tuesday could possibly push the total number of paper ballots past 800, according to the Circuit Clerk’s Office. Reprinted ballots received in October to include economic impact of three constitutional initiatives arrived without scannable codes on them, which has forced a long-hand tally in several counties. Going through each requires that a deputy clerk read the voter’s choice in each of 26 races and the three initiatives on Tuesday’s ballot.

“Each one takes about 4 minutes to read and there’s over 700 of these,” said Jim Moore, an election support staff member with the Warren County Election Commission. “So, do the math.”

Unofficial results showed Warren County’s 30,898 registered voters cast 14,724 ballots at the polls Tuesday, for a 47.6 percent turnout locally. That’s up from 36 percent from 2007, when a governor and county-level offices were last elected. Turnout statewide is estimated in excess of 50 percent.