CLEVELAND (AP) -- A malfunctioning machine was removed from the new Cuyahoga County paper-ballot scanning system yesterday after it failed two initial tests in advance of Tuesday's presidential primary, the board of elections announced.

Fourteen of fifteen scanners tested worked, the board said.

In the first tests performed yesterday during a public event meant to showcase the new system, workers twice sent a small batch of paper ballots into the scanner, which loads vote results onto computer disks. The disks then were taken to tabulation areas, but the computers were unable to read vote totals. On a third try, workers used a different scanner, and the system worked.

The system replaces touch-screen voting machines.

Elections board Director Jane Platten, hired to reform a troubled elections office plagued by lost votes, poorly trained poll workers and lengthy vote counts, said the attempts were only a test.

"This is not a system failure, this is one scanner out of 15 that did not pass the final round of testing," Platten said in a statement. "We are confident this system will perform accurately on March 4."

Spokesman Mike West said the board will test the machines, which are made by Election Systems and Software, several more times before the primary.

Platten and Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, who replaced the four county elections board members last year, repeatedly have said they are confident in the election system changes made in Ohio's most-populous county.

Brunner spokesman Jeff Ortega said last night that she remains confident in the system.

"This office's understanding is the situation has been resolved. Secretary of State Brunner has confidence in the board of elections. That's why these tests are performed," he said.

With approximately 1 million voters registered in Cuyahoga County, a close race between Democrats Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama could come down to the county vote. Ohio was crucial in President Bush's re-election in 2004.