Recounts Possible For 9 Races In Cuyahoga County Election (Ohio)

[OhioChick]

Source: AP

POSTED: 9:07 am EST November 18, 2007
UPDATED: 9:22 am EST November 18, 2007

CLEVELAND -- Election officials in Ohio's most populous county might have to recount as many as nine races from the Nov. 6 election, rekindling fears over the accuracy of electronic voting machines.

The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections says the official record of votes in an electronic touch-screen machine is a paper printout resembling the tapes in cash registers. Those records are fragile and are sometimes damaged and unreadable, making votes ineligible and recounts difficult.

The Board of Elections is scheduled to certify the Nov. 6 election results Wednesday. At least 3,200 provisional ballots and 5,500 absentee ballots must be added to about 195,000 votes already counted. State law mandates a recount if the margin of victory is one-half of 1 percent or less. Preliminary results show there are nine extremely close races.

The most high-profile potential recount is the Lyndhurst mayor's race, in which incumbent Joseph Cicero is just 16 votes ahead of challenger Tim Toma, based on unofficial results.



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