The state's two leading voter-registration organizations have called on Gov. Timothy M. Kaine to delay signing a bill that would require the eventual replacement of touch-screen voting machines in Virginia.

The Virginia Electoral Board Association and the Voter Registrars Association of Virginia adopted concurrent resolutions saying the governor should wait to see what Congress does before taking action.

A spokesman for Kaine said he has just received copies of the resolutions.

Under pressure from a nationwide grassroots movement, the 2007 General Assembly adopted legislation requiring the touch-screen machines to be replaced as they wear out. Critics say the machines do not leave a verifiable paper trail of how people voted.

Writing for the electoral board association, Arelia S. Langhorne of Lynchburg said the touch-screen machines work well and are popular with the voting public.

Langhorne, chairwoman of the Lynchburg City Electoral Board, said, "We believe this legislation is not yet fully formed and the ramifications not yet fully understood."

Chesterfield registrar Lawrence C. Haake III, president of the voter registrars association, said, "There is no outcry from the majority of voters against the machines, nor is there empirical data sufficient to support their discontinued use."

The two associations asked Kaine to delay the effective date of the proposed legislation from July 1, 2007, to July 1, 2008.

"This would provide time for mature reconsideration of the long-term effects, the potential for conflicts with impending federal acts and offer the possibility of achieving much improved legislation for the citizens of the Commonwealth," Langhorne wrote.

Haake said the governor should wait and see what Congress does. Congress is considering legislation to require paper trails.

The phase-out legislation would require that when the touch-screen machines wear out, they be replaced by optical-scan machines. The optical-scan machines leave a paper trail to check the accuracy of the vote. The touch-screen machines do not.

Because most of the touch-screen machines are relatively new, it would be 10 years at the earliest before they would be totally replaced, election officials say.

After the Florida voting fiasco in the 2000 presidential race, Congress mandated that the old mechanical lever and punch card voting equipment be replaced with newer touch-screen or optical-scan machines.

Congress appropriated billions of dollars to send to the states to buy the new equipment. Virginia received more than $30 million.

About two-thirds of the 134 Virginia jurisdictions opted for touch-screen machines.

"There have been no reports of failure or malfunction that would jeopardize an election's outcome," Langhorne wrote the governor. "Voters and election officials alike are pleased with the performance."

"Confidence is high among our members that use the DRE [touch-screen] machines that they are accurate, reliable and efficient," Haake wrote. Chesterfield, of which Haake is registrar, uses the optical-scan machines.

The electoral board association is a voluntary organization. It and the registrars unanimously adopted the resolutions at their annual meeting in Hot Springs on Saturday.

Ivy Main, one of the critics who has lobbied for a paper trail, said without a paper trail there is no way to assure a vote was properly recorded.

Main, policy director for the New Electoral Reform Alliance for Virginia, said the electoral board members don't want to admit they made a mistake when they chose the touch-screen machines.

"It is long past time to make sure our vote is secure," she said.

Kaine has until March 26 to decide whether to amend proposed legislation.