PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION Mahoning County board begins its vote recount

Trumbull County will begin its recount Monday.
YOUNGSTOWN -- It is still to be determined how much it will cost Mahoning County to recount votes cast in the presidential election.
The county's elections board staff began its recount about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday at the board offices at the county annex building on Market Street. It's not certain when they'll finish.
Thomas McCabe, elections board deputy director, said the National Voting Rights Institute sent a check for $3,120 -- $10 per each of the county's 312 precincts -- to pay for the recount.
The NVRI is representing David Cobb, Green Party presidential candidate, and Michael Bednarik, Libertarian Party candidate, who want a full recount of all votes cast for president in November. A federal court ruling allowed for the recount in all of Ohio's 88 counties.
Mark Munroe, elections board chairman, said although the NVRI had paid for the recount, he didn't know how much more the county would have to pay. That will be determined once the recount is complete and whether staff had to work overtime to get the recount finished.
Munroe pointed out this is the third recount of ballots cast in November. The board did the initial count after the Nov. 2 election and a recount to certify the election results.
The county uses electronic voting machines, so "we've got good numbers already," Munroe said.
Witnesses from the Democratic, Republican, Green and Libertarian parties were at the board.
Numbers
McCabe said about 17,000 absentee paper ballots will have to be rerun through the vote-tabulating machines.
To start that process, the board separated 600 random absentee ballots from the 17,000 for a hand count. Once that was done and successful, the remainder would be machine counted.
A total of 131,000 people cast votes in November.
McCabe said the recount procedure is being done statewide, and every county sets its own day to do so.
The Trumbull County Board of Elections will begin its recount at 9 a.m. Monday.
The board's staff will hand-count 3 percent of the total vote from the presidential election, as so instructed by the Ohio Secretary of State's office.
If the hand count is proved to be correct, then the remaining votes will be machine-counted.
Witnesses from all political parties and others are expected to be on hand.
Norma Williams, elections director, said the process will probably take two days.
The elections board met Tuesday to set the recount date. It will have to hire six extra people for the second day, at $50 each, to help with the count, she said.
A request to pay them will be sent to Trumbull County commissioners.
Columbiana County's recount begins at 9 a.m. Thursday.