PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island’s Nov. 4 local elections may end tomorrow afternoon.At 4 p.m., the state Board of Elections is scheduled to examine some of the 500 so-called “reviewable ballots” that weren’t counted on Election Day, in an effort to settle close races in Burrillville, Portsmouth, Tiverton and Smithfield. (Added complications in the Smithfield race may send that one to the courts.)

Officially, tomorrow’s board meeting is being held to certify the results of the 2008 election. But before it can do that, said the board’s director of elections, Robert B. Rapoza, it will have to examine ballots that voting machines in the disputed races didn’t read, to determine if the intent of voters in the still-contested races can be discerned.

This year marks the first time for this kind of review and Rapoza said he was unsure how the board would decide to do it or how long it would take.

In Tiverton’s race for town treasurer, a manual recount had Philip A. DiMattia leading Laura L. Epke by 51 votes, 2,109 to 2,058, but there are 150 reviewable ballots outstanding.

In the Burrillville School Committee election, Debra L. Stockwell had 2,011 votes and Peter F. Lambert 1,990, giving Stockwell a 21-vote lead — but with 33 votes still to review.

The contest for the last seat on the Portsmouth Town Council has Democrat James A. Seveney 23 votes ahead of Republican Joseph W. Robicheau, 3,724 to 3,701, but with 51 reviewable ballots.

In Smithfield, a machine recount in the Town Council election had Republican Maxine A. Cavanagh leading Democratic incumbent Bernard A. Hawkins by 69 votes, 4,102 to 4,033, with 193 reviewable ballots to be examined.

That race is further complicated by an Election Day error in which, for several hours, voters were given ballots that mistakenly included the name of Richard A. DiIorio, a Democrat who had dropped out of the race. Hawkins, citing that, has petitioned the state for a new election.

Hawkins’ lawyer, Angel Taveras, said on ballots with DiIorio’s name, Hawkins trailed Cavanagh. But after the switch to the correct ballots, he edged her out.

Reviewable ballots are a new wrinkle in Rhode Island recounts. The extra step is the result of a 2006 lawsuit by then-unsuccessful Cranston Republican mayoral candidate Allan W. Fung. (Fung won this month’s mayoral election.)

Fung had lost to Democrat Michael T. Napolitano on the machine count. The Superior Court, and, ultimately, the state Supreme Court, ruled that any ballot the optical scan voting machines didn’t read must be examined to see if it was possible to figure out how the voter meant to vote. Before that ruling, those votes simply would not have been counted.

Rapoza said a voting machine might reject a ballot if a voter selected too many candidates in a given race. Or, a voter might have used his or her own pen and the machine couldn’t read the ink.

—With reports from Staff Writer Thomas J. Morgan

jhill@projo.com