recount of Boston's ballot question votes yielded more accurate numbers but no change in the results, officials said yesterday.
City election workers spent Wednesday and Thursday unlocking and rechecking voting machines in each of Boston's 254 precincts.
Secretary of State William F. Galvin had ordered the recount last week after officials discovered poll workers misread machines in 51 precincts, overlooking at least 30,000 votes.
''There was no major swing in votes,'' said Nancy Lo, head of the Boston Elections Department. ''We have good numbers now, but there isn't going to be any change in the statewide election.''
The uncounted votes, apparently overlooked when some poll workers read the wrong columns of numbers on voting machines, only affected ballot questions.
The retabulation could have triggered a statewide recount on the narrowly defeated Question 3, a measure that would ban greyhound racing in Massachusetts. For that to happen, however, the measure's margin of defeat would have had to be cut from 65,000 votes to 12,000. In the recount, the racing ban actually lost ground - losing by 1,500 more votes.
Election officials said they are working on solutions to prevent the problem from occurring again, including better training for poll workers and labeling of the voting machine tabulators.
