Florida voting officials are relying on new technology this Election Day, in an attempt to avoid a repeat of the problems that marred the 2000 presidential election and made the term "hanging chad" part of the national vocabulary.

The Sunshine State already has moved to a system using optical scan voting machines, which every county was required to do as of July 1.

The machines allow voters to mark their preference on a paper ballot, which is then scanned and registered through the system.

The method is more high-tech than the paper balloting that caused confusion in 2000, but also may be more user-friendly, and hopefully trust-inspiring, than touch screen voting, which doesn't use paper ballots.

Sarasota elections supervisor Kathy Dent said voters still don't completely trust that every vote will count, but officials are working hard to ensure a smooth run come Election Day -- when the public will not just be judging the candidates, but the method of voting itself.

About 1,200 voters participated in a dry run Tuesday in Sarasota, and no major problems were reported.

"What we want to do is test every element of the equipment in election mode so that we will be able to make sure that everything is working as it's supposed to," Dent said.

Florida has four months to get it right.

The optical scan machines will replace the touch screen machines, which have been criticized for their lack of a paper trail.

Christine Jennings, who ran for Congress two years ago, still blames the touch-screen machines for her loss, but she said the new technology is a clear improvement.

"The optical scan is a much better system because there is a paper trail now, so there can be a check and a balance system that the Americans believe in so much," said Jennings, who is running again this year.

The last time she ran, her campaign claimed the touch screen machines did not register nearly 18,000 votes.

"When people tried to push the screen the X would not appear," she said.

A Government Accountability Office study discounted her campaign's claim.

But some election officials and voter rights advocates are worried about the new system and say there isn't enough time before November to properly test the technology.

"We've got new machines with new software that is not proven in the marketplace, and so I'm concerned that we're once again guinea pigs for new equipment," said Kindra Muntz, of the Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections.

There already have been problems. Two weeks ago in Palm Beach County, 700 votes initially were not counted in an election for a city commissioner. Officials said election workers were not aware of some new computer software on the optical scan machines.

Send your stories of alleged voter fraud to voterfraud@foxnews.com.

FOX News' Eric Shawn contributed to this report.