Instead of depending on touch-screen machines, she said, election officials should make absentee ballots available.

Other states that rushed to buy the touch-screen machines are also abandoning them.

In some cases, they have been able to vote without assistance on the touch-screen machines.

Per unit, the cost of optical scanners is about $1,000 more than a typical touch-screen machine.

The rule says no manual recounts will be conducted when votes are cast by touch-screen machine.

Many fears focused on touch-screen machines, which studies show sometimes fail to record votes.

The mistrust of touch-screen machines is thus equal parts technological and ideological.

This was hardly the first such incident involving touch-screen machines.

That does not include the $24.5 million it spent for 7,200 touch-screen machines.

Critics of touch-screen machines say that the best choice is "optical scan" technology.