As part of the "Help America Vote Act" electronic machines are required in each county and that's what Secretary of State Charlie Daniels says he expected to have in place. Tuesday he announced the firm hired to handle the new machines failed to do its job.

Daniels says it will have no effect on the outcome of the election. He says there are contingency plans in place and every single vote will count, no matter how it is cast. Others worry that may not be true and the say the problems could have been avoided.

If you planned to vote early in the May primary chances are most of you will be using a paper ballot.

Daniels says, "This is a deviation from the plan we had originally envisioned and communicated with our counties, and for that, I apologize."

Less than a week away from early voting Daniels decided to make changes after becoming convinced Election Systems and Software, the company that signed a $15 million contract with the state, couldn't complete programming and testing of all the machines in time.

Mark Kelley, regional account executive with ES&S admits, "We got a little behind in Arkansas. We brought in extra resources to get caught back up. I’m part of the group that's come in and we're committed to get the Arkansas project back on track."

And by the May 23rd primary election every county is expected to have those electronic machines. But Jim Lagrone, who is running against Daniels in the November elections questions the delay.

Lagrone, a Republican, says, "Daniels is racing to cover his tracks on this and it's the voters of Arkansas who are going to pay the price. He has yet to tell the state of Arkansas and the Arkansas voters just how much these mistakes are going to cost us."

Daniels says that will be determined after the election. For now he's concerned voters know they will be able to early vote.

"There have been some out there who've tried to discourage that and say you won't know what the ballot says, you won't know this or that, well, we're not gonna do it that way," says Daniels. "It's gonna be safe and sound and accurate."

Paul Suskie, one of three democratic primary candidates for attorney general, calls the whole situation unfortunate.

Suskie says, "I’m confident they'll have most of the problems fixed, but it's disheartening when you work so hard and you worry that some of your voters can't get their votes in."

But only time will tell if these problems truly lead to disenfranchised voters.

There have also been delays in the printing and delivery of absentee ballots in some counties, but again, the secretary of state's office says contingency plans are in place to make sure no matter what, military voters overseas and other absentee voters get a ballot in time for it to be counted.

Election Systems and Software is one of only a handful of voting machine vendors across the country. It has contracts with several states that have also reported problems. Some have even filed lawsuits against the company.