The House must approve Senate changes to the measure, then it's on to the governor for his signature.

DENVER - A measure that would clear the way for thousands of decertified electronic voting machines to be used during this year's elections cleared the Senate on a unanimous vote Monday.

But because of some changes made to it, the measure must return to the House for one last vote before it may be sent to Gov. Bill Ritter, who has indicated his support of the bill.

HB1155, which passed the Senate 35-0, is designed to allow Secretary of State Mike Coffman to reopen the testing process to consider appeals of decertified machines. Last year, Coffman declared most of the electronic voting machines and ballot scanners unusable by counties across the state, including some in Southern Colorado.

"It looks like the Senate amendments just tighten up the original intent of the bill, and I think they should be fine," said Rep. David Balmer, R-Centennial, who introduced the bill in the House. "We're going to try to move this bill this week, and I'm hopeful we'll get it to the governor's desk as fast as possible."

The measure gives Coffman the authority to consider possible fixes to the machines without having to start the testing from scratch, a process that could take months. It also allows county clerks to play an advisory role in that testing, something not allowed under current law.

Under a compromise between Republicans and Democrats, the Legislature is expected to consider another measure this session that calls for all counties to go to paper ballots for the 2008 primaries and general election.

As a result, most of the electronic voting machines won't be needed, but a handful will. Under federal law, at least one such machine must be made available at every voting place for use by the disabled.

Many of the ballot counters that were decertified will be needed to count those new paper ballots.

"The bill says they are going to be recertified without a relaxation of standards, so we can still be confident that they will meet the standards," said Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon, D-Denver, who carried the measure in the Senate. "The secretary of state's been working on this ever since December 17 hoping that we would pass this bill, so this bill allows him to continue."