The state Office of Elections has awarded a $43.4 million contract with Hart InterCivic to provide eScan and eSlate voting machines.

Voters will have the choice of using the eScan paper ballot or the eSlate electronic machine with a verifiable paper ballot, according to the elections office. The eSlate electronic machines have been used by disabled voters in the 2004 and 2006 elections.

"Hart not only provided the best solution from a voter's point of view, but it also provided the best option as far as administering the election," Rex Quidilla, who led the evaluation committee, said in a written statement.

The contract with Hart, based in Austin, Texas, runs through 2016 with an option to extend to 2018.

The state, over the past decade, has gone from punch-card voting machines to paper ballots with electronic readers. Election Systems & Software Inc. had been the vendor for the older machines, while Hart provided the electronic machines used by disabled people and others in the past two election cycles.

The eSlate machines, according to Hart, allow voters to see a summary of their votes before they hit the "cast ballot" button. Hart also offers a paper summary voters can review. The eScan machines involve paper ballots read by digital scanner.