AP - An exit poll by the University of Georgia indicates that voters overwhelmingly favor trying paper trails on electronic voting machines.

Machines that create voter-verified paper audit trails were used in Bibb, Camden and Cobb counties on November 7th.

The university's Survey Research Center interviewed 459 voters who used the machines. The results released by the Secretary of State's Office yesterday showed that 96 percent found the paper audit trail easy to use, 88 percent said their overall voting experience was ``good,'' and 89 percent of voters were either ``very'' or ``somewhat'' confident in the accuracy and security of the voting machines.

Eighty-seven percent of voters said they had previously been confident in the machines, 82 percent said they favored a paper trail for Georgia's voting system, and 99-point-eight percent said the paper trail accurately reflected their choices.

Legislative leaders are relying in part on the outcome of the experiment to determine whether Georgia's machines should have voter-verified audit trail capability. State Representative Tim Bearden of Villa Rica has filed a bill that would require paper audit trails.