The Associated Press

COLUMBUS - Many Ohioans will continue to use the punch-card voting system, with its hanging chads, until the November 2004 general election.

Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell has backed off his goal to have electronic voting machines in place statewide in time for the primary election next March 2. He said on Monday the lack of guaranteed federal funding and recently raised questions about the security of electronic voting equipment proposed for the state forced the delay.

Federal law requires that the conversion be completed by the November 2004 election, but Blackwell was aiming for the primary so voters and election workers would not face new equipment for the first time in a presidential election.

Increased security concerns about the electronic equipment has prompted some election officials to take a closer look at optical-scan devices, which use fill-in-the-bubble ballots much like standardized achievement tests in schools, Blackwell said.

"If I was a county elections official, I would choose the optical scan," Blackwell said.

However, most counties have been looking at computer touch screens, according to Jeff Matthews, director of the Stark County Board of Elections and president of the Ohio Association of Elections Officials.

He said that may change as county officials look at the various options.

They probably will be able to select from a trio of vendors that together offer three electronic voting devices and two types of optical scanners, Blackwell said.

He was set to name those companies last Friday until a judge slapped a restraining order on him at the request of a vendor eliminated from the competition a week earlier. A court hearing on that dispute is set for Friday.

Most of the statewide upgrade will be paid for by the federal government. Although money has been set aside by Congress, it has not yet been specifically allocated.