Diebold and Ohio: Imperfect Together

Subtle format problems on paper ballots made them unreadable in optical scanners in the May primary election, delaying Cuyahoga County's vote tally for days, a review of the machine problems found.

The election, the county's first using Diebold Inc.'s touch-screen and optical-scan voting systems, had an array of problems, including poll workers not showing up or not sufficiently trained in electronic voting.

Officials ordered a hand count of more than 18,000 paper ballots after the optical scan machines produced inconsistent tabulations. The machines are used for absentee votes or in other circumstances when touch-screen voting was not possible.