While last week's elections brought many surprises, for Rutherford County voters, the biggest surprise may have been the length of time it took to count the votes. Not only did it take longer than expected to county absentee ballots, but technical problems caused about 15 precincts to be counted using paper tally cards. But despite that, Nicole Lester, Rutherford County Election Administrator, says all votes were counted. The electronic cards from voting machines would not read. But Lester says there are several backup procedures in place to ensure the votes that were cast can be counted. The technical difficulties forced the finals results from voting in Rutherford County to be delayed to about 1:45 Wednesday morning.