ORLANDO, Fla. -- A new report obtained only by Channel 9 reveals some serious problems with the machines many will use to vote next Tuesday.

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READ REPORT: Florida Fair Elections Coalition

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The state plans to replace the system with paper ballots, but not until after this election. Orange County is using the touch screen voting machines for early voting only and on primary day they'll switch to a paper ballot.

But in Lake, Sumter and almost a dozen other Florida counties voters will be casting their ballot on a system that some say has major flaws. Touch screens were supposed to be Florida's answer to hanging chads, double votes, and election uncertainty, but now the state will spend $28 million to replace them.

Some say the most widely used touchscreen system, called "Ivotronics" never worked right in the first place.

"There were power problems, rainbow screens, blank screens, it just goes on and on," said Susan Pynchon of the Florida Fair Elections Center.

The DeLand based Florida Fair Election Center said there were calibration issues that could result in votes going to the wrong candidate or not being counted at all. Eyewitness News saw another problem when we tested a sample ballot; when a voter selects a candidate, it takes a long time to register.

Kitty Garber spent months researching the 2006 vote. She found big problems.

For example, according to the touchscreens used in Sumter County, a quarter of the votes in the Attorney General's election, a major statewide race, didn't register or were left blank.

"What we found was in Charlotte and Sumter counties one in four voters went to vote and did not vote in the Attorney General's race. That's astounding," Garber said.

It was astounding because in counties with plain paper ballots, on average, only about three-percent of voters failed to vote in the race. The question arises; did the touchscreens fail to count thousands of votes?

Since there was no paper trail the truth may never be known. The system was sold by Nebraska-based Election Systems and Software, and assembled in a factory in the Philippines.

ES&S tried to fix problems with the machines in 2004, but according to confidential e-mails from a Melbourne company hired to maintain them, the technicians did shoddy work. While election officials at the state level maintain the system is reliable, even the governor said he's happy Florida is switching.

"Well I don't want my state to be embarrassed anymore," Governor Crist said.

The Supervisor of Elections in Sumter County said she doesn't believe the touchscreen had anything to do with people not voting in the Attorney General's race. She believes the big reason is the vote was at the bottom of the ballot.

State law requires counties to switch to paper ballots by July 1, 2008, but each county is also required to keep using touch screens for disabled voters.

Electronic Software and Systems said the Florida Fair Elections Center study was biased. ES&S claims it tests its voting systems to make sure they were reliable, accurate and secure.