Even so, no one has reported a widespread meltdown or a decisive hack that would tip a major race -- at least not yet, according to voting experts. Until all results are reported and certified, and the performance of e-voting hardware is more completely assessed, it's difficult to judge how well the DRE touchscreen systems and the procedures around them, actually held up.

More time is required to determine whether there were any serious security breaches, said Justin Levitt, counsel for the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. "What we do know from yesterday is that the rollout of the new systems represented an enormous change for many officials and poll workers, in many cases in a last-minute rush."

While not every precinct nationwide had problems with every machine, there were issues with more devices than should be tolerated, he claimed. "Many precincts were simply unprepared to deal with servicing the number of voters arriving at the polls in the event of machine breakdowns. The user experience suffered as a result."

Despite glitches, top election officials from a number of states, including Florida, Utah and Alaska, felt Wednesday that their e-voting gear had worked well. Joseph Demma, chief of staff for Utah Lt. Gov. Gary Hebert, whose office oversees elections, acknowledged there were minor voting problems in Utah County.

However, the issues were procedural, and had to do with the lack of testing and programming the devices used to program a voter's specific ballot. The problems were soon corrected and Diebold Election Systems Inc., the vendor of the state's TSX touchscreen devices, gave more than adequate support, he said. "Overall, this was a huge success in Utah," said Demma. "We are extremely pleased."