The Diebold touch-screen e-voting systems have been certified by Florida state elections officials, but Sancho decided not to use them because of their lack of a paper trail. The county replaced Diebold's optical-scan machines as well so it could deal with a single vendor, ES&S, officials said.

A spokesman for McKinney, Texas-based Diebold downplayed the county's decision. "I think Mr. Sancho, for whatever reason, wanted to switch vendors," he said. Meanwhile, Volusia County, Fla., has also decided against using touch-screen systems, and Miami-Dade County is considering scrapping a $25 million investment in ES&S touch screens. Both cited accuracy concerns because the technology doesn't generate paper receipts that allow voters to verify their votes. Compliance Effort

To meet the regulations, Sancho plans to use a hybrid optical-scan reader called AutoMark, which is jointly offered by ES&S and its partner, AutoMark Technical Systems LLC in Lombard, Ill., AutoMark has an audio component that enables the blind to vote.

Sancho said the vendor is working to gain state certification for the system.

In what Sancho called an unrelated action, a Leon County-sponsored hack attack on the Diebold AccuVote optical-scan systems demonstrated vulnerabilities in the memory card. That hacking event was sponsored in part by Black Box Voting Inc., which bills itself as a consumer protection group for elections.