YOUNGSTOWN — A Sebring charter amendment to eliminate the village’s civil service commission that was winning by one vote during unofficial results ended up losing by a single vote after provisional ballots were tabulated.

The charter amendment proposal lost 300-299 and is headed for an automatic hand recount by the Mahoning County Board of Elections on Nov. 26.

The margin of defeat is 0.16 of a percent based on results certified Tuesday by the elections board. Any results that are 0.5 of a percent or less get an automatic recount.

The proposal was ahead 296-295, also 0.16 of a percent, after the Nov. 4 election. But there were still provisional ballots to count.

Among those provisional ballots, five voted against the charter amendment and three were in support, which turned the outcome from a victory to a defeat for the ballot issue.

The Sebring charter amendment was the only race — either for issues, levies or candidates — in the county that fell within that 0.5 of a percent margin.

Tim Gabrelcik, Sebring’s village manager, said the day after the election that village officials decided to ask voters to eliminate three charter provisions dealing with the civil service commission because the written test required for those wanting to be police officers and emergency 911 dispatchers is “so prohibitive.”

Candidates must score at least 70% on the written test to be considered for hiring or a promotion, and that has been a problem, Gabrelcik said.

If the charter amendment had passed, there would have been standards and a written test with a committee of the village manager, mayor, police chief and a citizen interviewing candidates for police and dispatcher hirings and promotions, Gabrelcik said. But more weight would be given to interviews and experience than the written test, he said.

There are seven full-time officers, a police chief, two part-timers, four full-time dispatchers and three part-time dispatchers in the village’s department.