There’s going to be changes in City Hall and at the State House in the wake of Tuesday’s primary elections.

And while the November election is the deciding factor, two of the 26 candidates on the city ballot won’t face a contest. As of Wednesday, however, one of those seats – that for Ward 7 – may hinge on provisional ballots. The other is Senate District 30, where Jeanine Calkin, who helped organize the Rhode Island Bernie Sanders campaign, beat incumbent William Walaska. Her margin of victory is large enough to ensure she will be the next senator, as there are no other candidates for the seat.

But in Ward 7, first-time candidate Stephen McAllister holds a thin four-vote lead over Charles Donovan Jr., who sought to make a return to the seat he held for 14 years before being beaten in the 2014 primary by Kathleen Usler by about 100 votes. Usler chose not to run for re-election.

Provisional ballots could affect the tally of absentee and ballots cast at the polls, Dottie McCarthy explained Wednesday as she and others in the Warwick Board of Canvassers opened red zippered bags from each of the voting districts. Provisional ballots are issued for a variety of situations, including cases where people don’t have personal identification, were issued a mail ballot but claim they failed to mail it in, or within the last 30 days changed their address in the city. Regulations dictate whether the ballots will be accepted with the emphasis, McCarthy pointed out, on seeking to ensure an individual’s right to vote. However, some cases, such as an expired driver’s license, would automatically disqualify a provisional ballot.

McCarthy said the Warwick board must have its paperwork, including the provisional ballots from the primary election, “balanced and complete” to the State Board of Elections by 3:45 this afternoon. But that won’t be the end of the counting.

Donovan said yesterday morning he would ask for a recount by yesterday’s 4 p.m. deadline.

“I will ask for that out of an abundance of caution and in fairness to those who worked for me in the campaign,” he said. Donovan said the closeness of the tally is a reminder “of how incredibly important every vote is.”

McCarthy couldn’t say whether a recount might be conducted as soon as Friday or next week.

McAllister was uneasy with the narrow margin but was still counting it as a win.

“You don’t get any extra points for winning in a landslide,” he said.

McAllister doesn’t align himself with any branch of the Democratic Party as Calkin made clear in her bid that she had worked for Sanders, who upset the state’s party leadership, beating Hillary Clinton in the April presidential preference primary.

But from his description, he tapped the disenchantment for incumbents reflected in the House District 21 race, where Councilwoman Camille Vella-Wilkinson beat incumbent Eileen Naughton.

“I got out early,” McAllister said of his bid for the council seat.

In walking the ward and attending local events, he said he was often asked if he was seeking re-election, an indication voters didn’t know their representatives.

“When I said this was my first run for office, they would say, ‘That’s good enough for me.’”

That by itself wasn’t enough. In addition to walking the ward with his girlfriend, Vanessa Rooney, McAllister spent an estimated $5,000 on signs, advertisements and mailings. He also used social media and said his campaign Facebook page reached more than 900 people when he posted a photo of Rooney’s dog, Ella, in campaign garb. He said voters recognized the dog at the pools and remarked on the Facebook post.

Walaska was stunned by the results. He said Wednesday that polls showed him ahead, and he thought he had identified the 1,000 votes he believed necessary to win the primary. He thinks Calkin’s work with Sanders helped and brought support from Progressive Democrats. He said his health made it difficult for him to walk the district and his vote for truck tolls hurt him. He thinks Calkin ran “a fairly sophisticated” campaign.

“I think I’ve done a good job,” Walaska said of the 22 years he has served. “I’m getting a bunch of calls, [people are asking] what happened? I wish I knew.”

While he identifies with the Progressive Democrats, Jeremy Rix feels his core message of “service” is what resonated with Ward 2 voters.

“It was getting out there,” Rix said of his campaign.

He said he responded to more than 50 voter requests responding to issues they wanted addressed by contacting city departments, National Grid and the Rhode Island Airport Corporation. He thanked his supporters and recognized the effort made by his opponents, Sean Rainey and James Donelan.

In House District 22, first-term incumbent Joseph Solomon coasted to a win over Jennifer Siciliano. Solomon was one of the few House Democrats to vote against the RhodeWorks legislation and its truck tolls backed by Speaker Nicholas Mattiello.

In the Ward 1 three-way contest for the party’s nomination, attorney Richard Corley beat Tanios Bouramia and Patrick Maloney Jr. He will face Republican Richard Cascella in the General Election.

Regardless of the winners in November, the council will see new faces, raising questions over a possible change in leadership and how the legislative branch will interact with the mayor. Mayor Scott Avedisian is seeking re-election. He is being challenged by Richard Corrente.

In the non-partisan School Committee primary, where six candidates were vying for four positions on the November ballot, the two youngest candidates, both under 21 years old, Nathan Cornell and Chadd Huddon, lost. With a tally of 3,587 votes, incumbent Karen Bachus led the ticket, followed by David Testa, Daniel Hall and Dean Johnson.