Surveys by the Utah Colleges Exit Poll showed a high level of confidence in the new machines among Utah voters, 94 percent of whom said they preferred tapping to punching, as they exercised their civic duty.

At Redwood Elementary School in West Valley City, poll judge Mary Lou Kulsick said voters appeared surprised at how easy the machines were.

"They're new and different, but when they come back they have a smile on their face," Kulsick said.

Indeed, most Utahns experienced a smooth transition to the new electronic devices, though the day did not pass without a number of significant problems.

Voters at polling places in Utah County early Tuesday were turned away or voted on paper ballots when poll workers couldn't get the machines to work. Election officials say a problem with voter cards used in the state's new touch-screen voting machines affected 112 of 118 Utah County polling locations, causing many to open late and resulting in significant delays at others.

Voters at the Utah County Health and Justice Building in Provo were given provisional ballots when poll workers couldn't get their machines working in the early morning. With just one traditional-style booth available for the paper balloting, voters were left to improvise on nearby tables and atop the closed covers of the digital machines.

Voter Robert Nelson spent 90 minutes hoping poll workers could fix the problem so he could vote, but ultimately gave up waiting.

"The workers were earnestly trying to get the machines to work, but not a one in our precinct worked," Nelson said. "I work in Salt Lake City, so I couldn't wait for the machines to work."

But with the county's precincts running more smoothly Tuesday evening, 4th District Judge Samuel McVey denied a voting advocacy group's request to extend voting hours, saying the group hadn't established that the morning delay had prevented voters from casting their ballots later in the day.

Joe Demma, chief of staff to Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert, "guesstimated" voter turnout at about 50 percent.

Chief among the concerns of many voters and poll workers throughout the state was confusion created by the logo of the Personal Choice Party - a yellow happy-face symbol - which a number of voters took to be the button that would allow them to bypass the straight-party voting option.

The relatively obscure party garnered nearly 14 percent of straight-party votes in Salt Lake County - more than eight times the combined votes gathered by four other minor parties on the ballot.

By mid-morning, Mary Beth Vogel-Ferguson, an election judge at the Applied Technology Center in Salt Lake City, had responded to 15 voters who wanted help after mistakenly giving the Personal Choice Party their straight party endorsement. Vogel-Ferguson noted there may have been more who didn't ask for help.

"It is just an oddity," said Mary Beth Vogel-Ferguson, an election judge at the Applied Technology Center in Salt Lake City. "All they would need to do is add the word 'party' after each one, you know, 'Republican Party,' 'Democratic Party,' 'Personal Choice Party.'"

Also disconcerting to voting watchdogs was the lack of lists, at some precincts, of individuals who had cast votes at early voting stations.

Poll workers received lists of those who took advantage of early voting, but, at least in Salt Lake County, those lists did not include people who cast their ballots after Friday.

Mary Beth Vogel-Ferguson, an election judge at the Applied Technology Center in Salt Lake City, said that meant some voters could have voted twice.

Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swenson said she would check on the problem but stressed that anyone who managed to vote twice would be found and prosecuted.

That worries Ray Agutter, who admits he voted twice to make a point.

The retired Salt Lake City resident said he voted Friday at an early polling location and then, to test the system, went to his official precinct on Monday where he told four poll workers what he intended to do.

"I told each one, 'I'm going to vote twice,' and not one of them stopped me," Agutter said.

At Hillside Junior High in the East Bench area of Salt Lake City, poll workers arrived at 6 a.m. to begin preparing the machines but had only managed to get two of the precinct's nine machines up and running by the time voters arrived at 7 a.m.

Poll manager Georgia Gates said the machines were working by 8 a.m., though some citizens - including several who never returned the digital access cards - left without voting by that time.

Davis County voter Sydney Husseman reported that several voters at Whiteside Elementary School in Layton received "error" messages when they inserted the voter access card into the machines. And one man, she said, had to start his voting procedure over when the machine apparently canceled his votes as he stopped to think about one candidate.

"There were no lines, but there were three or four people who were all having problems," said Husseman.

Some voters were purposefully staying away from the electronic voting machines - scared off by fears that the machines could be hacked into or would not accept the vote as intended.

Democrat Pete Ashdown, who is challenging GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch, wrote on his blog that he voted by paper. "Being a candidate with a computer background causes a frequent question about voting that I happily answer, 'Paper and pencil,' " Ashdown wrote.

Lisa Rodgers at West Valley City said voting was easy, but "I just hope nobody does anything crooked with it."

But her concerns appeared to be in the minority. More than 95 percent of Utahns expressed confidence that their votes would be counted accurately, according to the exit poll, overseen by Brigham Young University.

"It's more professional," said Margo Irvine, voting at the Valley Assembly of God in West Valley City, "not so backwoodsy."

Peggy Black, a volunteer poll manager for 15 years, said her West Jordan Library precinct had more than 500 people vote this year - nearly three times as many as the last non-presidential election.

Nearly 300 voters successfully cast their ballots at Edgemont Elementary before the polls closed at 8 p.m. According to election judge Allison Seabury, there were no technical problems with the touch-screen voting machines. Only one voter refused to use the machines, opting for a paper ballot.

At Sprague Library in Salt Lake City's Sugarhouse district, poll worker Barbara Murdock said the machines were a hit.

"People have loved the machines. They were nervous at first, but then they said 'oh! This was fun!'" she said. "If you've used an ATM, you can use this machine, no problem."

For Everette Bacon, it was a welcome change from elections past.

Bacon, who is blind, took advantage of the audio option on the machine - allowing him to vote without assistance for the first time.

"It was great," said Bacon. "I had no problem at all."

Reporting: Matthew D. LaPlante, Thomas Burr, Robert Gehrke, Matt Canham, Michael Limon, Glen Warchol, Dana Rimington, Julie Espinosa, Lynda Percival, Tabatha Deans and Pamela Baumeister.