Federal officials are counting the votes in the closely watched union election by Amazon.com Inc. warehouse workers in Bessemer, Ala., and results are expected on Friday. Some Bessemer workers are attempting to become the first Amazon employees to be unionized and would be represented by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. Officials have counted roughly half the ballots cast. Of votes counted, roughly 70% of the Amazon employees took the side against unionization on Thursday. Officials from the National Labor Relations Board counted votes for hours in a broadcast. A total of 3,215 ballots were submitted, and officials will resume counting on Friday, when the end result could become clear.The NLRB has processed ballots for days since the voting concluded on March 29 to make sure they were valid, and it allowed both parties an opportunity to contest the qualification of each one. As the tally swung extensively in Amazon’s favor on Thursday, the union criticized the company’s tactics during the election, including how it held mandatory meetings to discourage workers from voting in favor of the union and a mailbox that appeared close to the Bessemer facility. The US Postal Service installed a mailbox outside the Bessemer facility close to when the mail vote initiated in February after requests from Amazon, according to email records viewed by The Wall Street Journal. The union took issue with the mailbox due to it stating that it could discourage voting workers to reckon that Amazon was conducting the election.