A state court judge in San Diego has upheld new state rules requiring election workers to recount ballots in 10 percent of precincts when elections are close.
Election officials in San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino and Kern counties argued that the recounts are unnecessary, expensive and may delay the certification of election results. Under old rules, workers only needed to recount ballots in just 1 percent of precincts.
Tuesday's ruling means the new standard will go into effect for the state's February 5 presidential primary.
A spokeswoman for Secretary of State Debra Bowen says the expanded counts would be done to determine if results match electronically scanned totals.
San Diego County attorneys say they will appeal.
