The Office of Elections is reviewing proposals for new balloting systems to carry the state through 2016.

Over the past decade, the state has moved from punch card voting to paper ballots with electronic readers. In 2004, the state added electronic machines for voters with disabilities.

The technological advances have sped up election results, but have in some cases forced ballot recounts and raised questions about whether the results can be audited.

And, like anything new, they've also been greeted with suspicion.

"I hate touch screens," said Gordon Leong, 72, as he looked at one of the proposed machines. "I'm confused by all of this."

Vendors have been invited to submit proposals for voting equipment that could include electronic machines and mark-in ballot systems, as well as technology that would merge both on Election Day.

"The request for proposals is open-ended," said Rex Quidilla, interim chief elections officer. "There's an ability to seek a single system from one vendor or the state also has the option to seek components from one or more vendors to combine them to best fit the needs of the state."

With absentee voting growing in popularity and a law requiring a printout of all votes cast on electronic machines, there's no chance of the state going paperless, Quidilla said.

There's also a question of cost, since moving to purely electronic machines at the precincts would likely be far more costly than a paper ballot system.

Former poll worker Jane Nakasato would like to see more electronic machines, though. "It would be great," she said, noting that many Election Day mistakes are because of human error in filling in the ballots and feeding them into the counter, rather than equipment failure.

She added that with the prevalence of computers, GameBoys and digital video recorders, the electronic systems could come across as more user-friendly.

Then again, poll workers from the Moanalua Elementary School precinct said only one or two people used the electronic machine during the past general election, and one of them just used it out of curiosity.

The deadline for vendors to submit proposals has passed and a contract will be awarded Nov. 15.

ES&S provided the paper ballots and electronic counting machines for the past five election cycles, while Hart Intercivic was contracted for the electronic voting machines that were used in 2004 and 2006.

Combined, the contracts were worth about $5.3 million.

Now that both contracts have expired, the state has the opportunity to start from scratch under a new yet-to-be-named chief elections officer, after the retirement of longtime chief Dwayne Yoshina earlier this year.

"The great advantage we have here is that we start with a blank slate and are able to cherry-pick what would ultimately be the best for voters," said Quidilla, a candidate for the top elections post.

He said the state will be considering more than just the machines, but also the vendors' track records and abilities to repair equipment quickly to avoid disruptions in the election.

But it's the equipment itself that tends to draw attention when there are problems on Election Day. In 1998, a new optical scanning system led to a statewide ballot recount.

In 2004, election observers questioned whether there was any way to audit the electronic ballots, which led to paper-printouts being added to the electronic machines last year.

There were few equipment-related complaints during the past election, when a shortage of poll workers was a bigger concern.

Quidilla said the vendors will be evaluated on their abilities "to not only speed up the process, but to help us put out results that may be audited and may be verified."

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.