Mistake forces Denton County to recount paper ballots

An election worker's mistake is forcing Denton County to recount all of its paper ballots from Tuesday’s election.

The elections administrator said a worker accidentally left some of the scanning machines in test mode - which means they would not accept paper ballots with real results. The problem was discovered when workers started scanning ballots on Tuesday night.

The election administrator says he does not know how many ballots are affected because workers followed instructions and sealed up the ballots immediately to avoid tampering.

A judge approved the county's request for a recount today, so the process should begin tomorrow.

Rather than just rescanning the rejected ballots, the county plans to rescan all paper ballots from early voting and Election Day to make sure the totals are accurate.