In Oregon, Voting Machines Functioned Nearly Perfectly

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)   A double check the Legislature ordered suggests that Oregon's vote tally this year was close to spot-on.
Across the state, elections workers have been checking samples to see whether voting machines and procedures are accurate. Twenty-nine of the 36 counties have reported. The deadline is Thursday.
The results, elections workers say so far, show just minor discrepancies _ nothing big enough to trigger recounts.
For instance, in Multnomah County, a check of more than 8,000 ballots showed John McCain got a vote in the original tally that he shouldn't have gotten, and Barack Obama was shorted a vote.
In Clackamas County, out of 6,000 ballots in six precincts, a judicial candidate missed out on two votes that were marked too faintly for machines to pick up.
In Jackson County, McCain picked up two votes. He had trailed Obama by 47.
"It sounds like the accuracy was in the acceptable range," said Bryan Platt, former chairman of the Jackson County Republican Central Committee. He had expressed concern about voting machines jamming or misreading ballots.
Legislators approved the check last year.
"I decided that, symbolically, it would be worth putting in place a system that wasn't Draconian but that would provide a little extra confidence in the voter that their ballot had been counted," said Democratic Rep. Mitch Greenlick of Portland.
Under the law, each county must hand count at least 3 percent, and a maximum of 10 percent, of their precincts in at least three races.
"Everything has gone well in all the counties," said state Elections Director John Lindback. "There's no indication of any issues with tally machines anywhere."
Lindback said counties also conduct test runs of machines before the election and on Election Day.