The commissioners supported a measure opposing House Resolution 811, which could force Utah counties to scrap their new electronic voting machines.

Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., is proposing the overhaul to ensure that voting machines produce a durable paper record that matches the electronic vote tally.

Utah's new machines - which cost about $27 million - provide a paper trail, but the thermal rolled printouts may fall short of the "durable" standard Holt envisions.

County clerks across the state are balking at the bill, and county officials - like those in Davis and Utah counties - are considering resolutions formally opposing it.

State and county election officials argue Utah's Diebold machines work fine and need no federally mandated reforms.

"We have the paper trail based on these machines," Utah County Commissioner Larry Ellertson said, "and the acceptance has been very high by the voting public."

Davis County Clerk Steve Rawlings, a Republican, referred to the Holt bill as a knee-jerk reaction from the Democratically controlled Congress.

"We meet almost all of the qualifications in the new law except the requirement to move to optical-scan ballots," Rawlings said. "We're asking for more time to be spent massaging the bill."

David Bear, spokesman for Texas-based Diebold Election Systems, defended the company's widely used product as highly accurate and fraud-resistant.

"The current voter receipt is very durable and is an industry standard."

But not all Utahns feel secure with Utah's election safeguards.

Larry Holmstrom, chief executive officer of the Nashville- and Salt Lake City-based Truvote International, questions the validity of the direct-recording electronic (DRE) voting systems in Utah and other states.

"The paper trail is not worthwhile," Holmstrom said. "If there was an error in the electronic record, there is no ability to match that error to the voter-verified paper audit trail."

Holmstrom's company aims to have a printer and software system certified by fall that would meet the requirements of HR811 and could plug into existing electronic voting machines.

Park City resident Kathy Dopp, a member of the Desert Green Party, voiced strong support for the Holt bill and strong skepticism for Utah's Diebold machines.

"Cuyahoga County [Ohio] uses the same machines we do and they found that the Diebold central tabulator is incapable of printing a report from each machine," Dopp said. "They also use a database that's easily corrupted if there's a lot going on."

cmckitrick@sltrib.com

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* STEVE GEHRKE contributed to this story.