Article Date: Wednesday, January 16, 2008

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) _ Teams of counters have started re-counting the Democratic ballots cast in last week's New Hampshire presidential primary.

They are looking first at ballots from Manchester.

Secretary of State William Gardner says his office has received $27,000 from Ohio Democrat Dennis Kucinich to pay for the start of the re-count. Gardner said observers from campaigns and fair elections groups have the right to see and approve every ballot.

Kucinich received less than 2 percent of the vote. He said he is suspicious of the results, although he doesn't expect a re-count to change his vote count much.

Kucinich can stop the re-count at any time and get a refund for the balance of the costs. To re-count the entire state would cost him about $70,000.

Republican Albert Howard of Michigan has asked for a re-count of the GOP primary but has not paid for it yet.