SAN DIEGO -- County policy advisors forwarded a recommendation to their bosses Friday stating that local voters should use paper "optical-scan" ballots in November's Presidential election.

Officials said the recommendation was presented to County Chief Administrative Officer Walt Ekard on Friday afternoon, and that Ekard was expected to approve the recommendation next week.

Earlier this month, California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley barred San Diego County and three other counties from using electronic voting machines they recently bought from Ohio-based Diebold Systems Inc. Shelley said the company had failed to get proper federal testing before the counties used the machines in the March 2 primaries. In addition, electronic "glitches" in San Diego County's system caused 36 percent of the county's 1,611 polling places to open late, preventing an unknown number of people from voting.

County officials say their contract with Diebold stipulates that the company must pay for the county's cost of using paper ballots in November. They also say they have not paid Diebold any of the $31 million they agreed to pay for 10,200 machines.