CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The state of Ohio refused to release election results after the polls closed Tuesday, based on a judge's decision to keep one polling place open late.

Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, a GOP candidate for governor, made the decision to hold results until all polling locations were closed.

A judge ordered the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections to keep the polling location at Garden Valley Neighborhood House at 7100 Kinsman Ave. open until 9:30 p.m. Tuesday

When poll workers had trouble setting up the equipment in the morning, the polling place didn't open until 1:30 p.m. for voting.

Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones and Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Bryan Flannery were at Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Cout in front of Judge Nancy McDonnell requesting that the polls stay open late. The judge only ruled on the Garden Valley location.

With all the problems reported at the polls Tuesday, NewsChannel5 has learned that the absentee results will be delayed.

About 17,000 absentee votes will have to be hand counted because of a problem with optical scanners.

There were also reports of problems with the new electronic machines. Both machines are made by Diebold, NewsChannel5's Duane Pohlman reported.

Tubbs Jones said if fault is found in the manufacturers, the responsible company should pay.

"On behalf of the people of Cuyahoga County, I trust that the board will seek a reimbursement for all the people that we have to hire to count these ballots from whoever is responsible for us not being able to do that by machine," Tubbs Jones said.

Meanwhile, Cuyahoga County Board of Elections officials are trying to sort out why there were so many problems Tuesday.

Because of some confusion at the polling locations, citizens were given ballots to fill out by hand, said Micheal Vu, director of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.

"We knew there were going to be glitches. Eighty percent of our workers did a wonderful job. The other 20 percent, we had to mitigate," Vu said. "This whole election is about process. We want the voter to understand their ballots will be counted>"

At about 6:45 a.m. at Woodbury Elementary School in Shaker Heights, a resident left the polling location after growing extremely frustrated about the process.

On Cleveland's east side at Beachland polling place, supervisors who were trained to set up the machines never showed up Tuesday morning. It took about three hours for workers to figure out things for themselves and get the machines operating.

At St. Dominic's in Shaker Heights, the machines were set up but they didn't work.

A technician was sent over to troubleshoot. She received directions via phone, but couldn’t fix the problem.

The switch from punch cards to more sophisticated technology was mandated by the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002, prompted by the punch-card-driven mess in Florida following the 2000 presidential election.

Polling sites in all 88 Ohio counties were using either touch-screen electronic machines or ones that electronically scan ballots that voters have marked, eliminating punch-card ballots. Half the counties had their first election with the new machines in November. The rest got up and running in Tuesday's primary election.

NewsChannel5 is On Your Side with helpful information on how to use the new machine.

Go to newsnet5's Vote 2006 section for additional information.