WELLSBURG, W.Va. -- Election officials explained a problem with a voting machine that held up ballot counting Tuesday.

Brooke County Clerk Sylvia Benzo said 26 out of the county's 27 precincts were counted without any issues.

"We probably could have gotten out around 9 or 9:30 p.m.," said Benzo. "That was a simple process of downloading those into our computer."

Benzo said one machine from the Milsop School precinct out of Weirton wouldn't download properly into the computer.

"The young lady that took care of the polls up there couldn't close it properly," said Benzo. "So in order for me to close the polls here, I have to have her bring that entire machine in. So then we have to reprogram another personalized electronic ballot and go from that process."

Election officials said a Weirton precinct also proved to be problematic during the primary election in May when again information couldn't be downloaded from the voting machine.

Benzo wanted to assure the public that totals out of her county were accurate despite the hurdles from the problematic machine.

"The actual vote is on a different PEB, so the votes are secure," said Benzo. "There are three places we can get them if there would ever be a problem. In West Virginia, we do have a paper trail. We can also collect votes from the second PEB, and then there's another drive in there called a flash drive. We can take those flash drives out and download them into our computers."

Benzo said an election canvass will begin Tuesday.