Kings County officials dealt with a paper balloting process Tuesday that slowed returns and stretched the county's election worker ranks to the limit.

With the county's touch screen machines shelved indefinitely by the California Secretary of State, officials used paper ballots for the first time since 2005.

That meant later hours for polling station workers, more election workers needed to count the ballots at the government center and an overall slower process.

Returns weren't in until 4 a.m. Wednesday, compared to 11:30 p.m. same-day results the last time electronic machines where used, said Ed Rose, county elections manager.

To comply with disabled voter requirements, precinct workers maintained one touch screen voting machine at each polling station.

Officials said they were able to get the legal required minimum of three workers at each polling station Tuesday, but just barely.

"We were struggling. We were a little thin in some places," said Ken Baird, county assessor/clerk-recorder.

Rose said the county could have used six more workers to help on election night.

"We were stretched to the limit to get this thing done by 4 a.m. this time," Rose said.

As of Wednesday afternoon, only 200 provisional ballots remained to be counted, Rose said.

Baird said the county managed to recruit from a new pool of volunteers that could help in the upcoming June and November elections.

"We're back to where we were 10 or 15 years ago," he said of the return to a paper balloting system.

The reporter can be reached at 583-2432.

(Feb. 8, 2008)