URBANA -- Some of the ballots from an Urbana school board race that came down to four votes were recounted Thursday, but it didn't change the results of the election.

Ballots from the Cunningham 23 precinct, which includes voters in the Urbana school board sub-district 6 race, were part of a retabulation of votes from several precincts.

The process is a routine one, done after every election. The Illinois State Board of Elections randomly selects 5 percent of the precincts voting in an election for a retabulation, said Champaign County Clerk Gordy Hulten.

The retabulation is done to check the accuracy of the machines used on election day to count the votes, and to ensure that no one has tried to tamper with any ballots.

It so happens that Cunningham 23 was one of the randomly selected precincts from the April 5 election, and that voters in that precinct cast ballots in the only contested Urbana school board race. In that race, Paul Poulosky received four more votes than Steve Summers 486 votes to 482 votes to win a seat on the school board.

On Thursday, the voting machines used in the six precincts selected for the retabulation were tested, then all the ballots were run through them again. The results from election night were compared with the results from Thursday's retabulation.

In addition, the clerk's office selects one race from each precinct for a hand count, and that result is also compared with the election night results. In Cunningham 23, the race selected for the hand count was the Urbana school board sub-district 6 race.

"I fully expect results to be exactly the same," said Poulosky Thursday morning as the retabulation began. "I understand the state needs to validate the equipment and give the public confidence in the system."

He was philosophical about a possible change in results.

"If it happens to change the result, it does. That's just democracy in action," he said.

Poulosky needn't have worried.

The retabulation showed voters in Cunningham 23 cast 64 votes for Poulosky and 35 votes for Summers, the same as on election day.

"We got the same result on election night, in the retabulation and the hand count, so it's triple-checked. And that's what we expected," Hulten said.

"We've never had a discrepancy come up that couldn't be explained or rectified," he said. "These machines are just incredibly accurate."

If there is a discrepancy, the clerk's office must justify that to the state board of elections.

Thursday's retabulation did reveal a discrepancy in the Mahomet 3 precinct. Two ballots cast in the county clerk's office, as either early or absentee votes, couldn't be read by the machine used on election night and during the retabulation. Hulten said the ovals on one ballot were marked with Xs rather than being filled in, and the other ballot was completed in pencil.

Those ballots did count as part of the election day total, as they were read accurately by a machine in the clerk's office when they were cast, Hulten said.

The retabulation is another level of safeguard, he said.

"It makes sure if somebody were to try to mess with the ballots, they can't," Hulten said.

"Ideally, we like to match everything we got on election night so the confidence of the public is increased as we keep testing and auditing ourselves and not finding any discrepancies."

The clerk's office will certify the final results of the election on April 19.