Oregon Public Broadcasting

A random hand count of selected election results in Oregon has turned up no major discrepancies, state officials said Thursday.  A new state law required the recount to verify the results. Salem correspondent Chris Lehman has more.

Elections workers in each of Oregon’s 36 counties were required to do partial hand recounts of randomly selected races.  

Lawmakers hoped the procedure would confirm the original tallies, thereby boosting confidence in the state’s election system.  The gamble seems to have paid off.  

Most counties found no more than a vote or two difference between the machine count and the hand count.  That was the case in Polk County, where elections clerk Cody Trudell says it took three days and four extra workers to do the job.

Cody Trudell:  “We kind of grumbled and moaned a little bit about it, but I personally am glad because it just proves to the public that the system works.”

The Secretary of State’s office also released its official voter turnout number for this November -- 85.7 percent.  That’s high nationally, but it’s almost a full percentage point lower than the 2004 Presidential election in Oregon.