We cringed along with Rock Island County Clerk Dick Leibovitz as he discarded ballots from the neck-and-neck Rock Island city mayoral election. Any good county clerk would.

It's almost certain each of those ballots had been cast by a member of that precious minority of Quad-Citians: those who do the right thing and vote. Rock Island Mayor Dennis Pauley's win was so close, it demanded a recount. Challenger David Levin asked for it, and Circuit Court Judge Mark VandeWiele ordered it, all according to Illinois law.

As part of that law, the judge and attorneys representing all sides agreed on a process for the recount. All agreed to count only the ballots properly initialed by election judges. There are fewer than 20 uninitialed paper ballots among the 6,119 cast for mayor.

That fraction would indicate neither fraud nor incompetence by the county clerk. In most elections, it would remain undetected and unimportant. In this election, those few slip-ups by polling place election judges may change the outcome. But those are the rules, clearly included in Illinois law and agreed to by these attorneys in this specific case.

More problematic are the touch-screen votes cast by voters who asked for the more accessible voting option. None of the 582 touch-screen ballots cast include handwritten initials, as required under a strict interpretation of the law. Like Leibovitz, we can't see dismissing these ballots because state rules failed to adapt to this not-so-new technology. That is an oversight for which the county clerk, along with the Illinois State Board of Election bear some responsibility.

But again, throughout this recount we've seen no evidence of fraud or deception. So we have to believe these touchscreen ballots are valid and should be included in the recount.

However, the handful of uninitialed paper ballots should not. The attorneys representing all parties in this lawsuit, including the one appointed for the county clerk, agreed to the requirement for paper ballots.

We empathize with Rock Island County's passionate clerk and his commendable concern for voters. And we're glad to see the recount back on track, even if it changes the outcome of this election.