Audit: Election Day tally adds up

5/6/2008

CLEVELAND - A hand-count audit of a sample of presidential primary votes in Ohio's largest county matches the results delivered by a machine that scanned the same paper ballots, an official said .

Pat McDonald, deputy director of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, said the audit reviewed 7 percent of ballots cast during the March 4 election, including 30,814 paper ballots from 99 precincts.

They were hand-counted by Republicans and Democrats last week. The count was compared to a fresh scan of the same ballots and finished Friday. Yesterday, the county's staff was comparing the outcome to tallies arrived at on March 4.

Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner had asked counties for audits to help determine consistency and performance of the voting process.