Even as it continues to pay off more than $15 million still owed on touch-screen voting machines, the Miami-Dade County Commission took a key step Tuesday toward replacing them with optical-scan paper ballots.

The paper-trail machines are far cheaper to operate but will require an upfront investment of about $12 million. State lawmakers voted this spring to require those machines by next summer, following ongoing concerns about the accuracy of the ATM-style systems that Miami-Dade has used since 2002.

The state will provide about $5 million, and county elections supervisor Lester Sola said Tallahassee could be lobbied to send more money next year. In exchange, the county must turn over most of its touch-screen machines -- but will be reimbursed if the state sells them.

''This is the price of democracy,'' said Commissioner Audrey Edmonson, a member of the Government Operations and Environment Committee, which unanimously recommended accepting the state money. ``We have to ensure that every vote counts.''

The mechanics of voting have been closely scrutinized in Florida since the disputed 2000 presidential election left voters with images of canvassing board members squinting at punch-card ballots.

''After the 2000 election, there was a swing to go very, very high tech, probably before its time,'' said Commissioner Carlos Gimenez.

A number of administrative steps remain, even if the full commission accepts the committee recommendation, which it must do by the end of June in order to secure the state money. The most significant will be inviting bidders and negotiating a deal to buy about 700 machines to read the optical-scan ballots.

The county must also buy or retrofit voting booths, buy new supplies, print ballots and launch another round of intensive classes to train poll workers on the new systems. All those costs, Sola said, are included in the $12 million projection.

''That is everything, soup to nuts,'' he said.

The law requires the new system to be in place by July 1, 2008, meaning the touch-screen machines will still be used for Florida's blockbuster January election that could include presidential primaries, property-tax reform and slot machines. Sola said no significant problems were proven to have tainted any of Miami-Dade's touch-screen elections.

''We believe that it works and works well,'' he said.

But he has long lobbied for a switch to optical-scan. Not only does it allow manual recounts, which are impossible on touch-screen machines, but Sola estimates the county will save $800,000 to $2 million in labor costs on major general elections.

''The longer we keep touch-screen, because of the higher operating costs, is just throwing good money after bad,'' Gimenez said.

The state mandate for paper voting, however, irked Commissioner José ''Pepe'' Diaz, who chided lawmakers for imposing mandates without providing full funding.

The committee's chairwoman, Natacha Seijas, also called for activists who protested against touch-screen voting to now join the commission in lobbying legislators for additional reimbursement.

http://www.miamiherald.com/416/story/137575.html

SWANNY NOTE:

I can be fined $1000 dollars a day if my car is parked without a tag....and a tag needs car insurance,,another additional expense. Can we fine the State for each day it denies us a real vote in Florida?