Moreover, he said, the county also would have had to spend an extra $30,000 to buy additional ballot information cartridges to put in the touch-screen machines since state law requires the ones used March 15 to be secured for 30 days.

For the same reason, the county already spent just more than $30,000 for additional memory cards used in the optical scan machines.

At the city election board, Republican elections director Gary Stoff said he doubts that the staff there would have been able to reprogram and test all the touch-screens even if work was continuing 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Fey and Stoff said it takes less time to reprogram the optical scan machines because far fewer of those devices are needed because each one processes ballots cast at several voting stations at a polling place.

But across the state, the Kansas City Election Board managed to get its touch-screen machines ready. That board also offers voters the option of touch-screen and optical-scan devices and will continue to do so Tuesday, a spokeswoman said.

In St. Louis County, officials said, most voters typically use the touch-screen machines. At the March primary, Fey said, 85 percent did. In the city, Stoff said, the breakdown typically is about half and half between touch-screen and optical scan.