Vermont’s top election official says the optical scan voting machines used by many Vermont cities and towns performed well this past Election Day.

Secretary of State Jim Condos said his office led a random audit of the machines by handing counting the votes they tabulated in Barre Town, Brandon, Essex and Newfane.

Condos said a deviation between the machine and hand counts of 1 to 2 percent is considered acceptable, and the Vermont results deviated by well less than 1 percent.

Condos said the audit shows the machines are an accurate method of counting ballots.