Gov. Charlie Crist is preparing to recommend that the controversial touch-screen voting machines used in Broward, Palm Beach and 13 other Florida counties be scrapped and replaced with optical scanners that would count paper ballots.

U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, said the governor would recommend spending at least $20 million on optical scanners for the 15 counties with touch-screen machines when he presents his proposed budget to the state Legislature on Friday.

Wexler credited Crist with proposing a "bold and comprehensive" plan. "We are about to resolve, once and for all, the election integrity problem in Florida, and we are about to realize the dream of creating a paper trail for every voter in the state of Florida."

Crist's office could not be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.

The Republican governor may raise the issue Wednesday in Tallahassee during an appearance before Florida newspaper editors. He's also scheduled to appear Thursday with Wexler, the state's leading critic of touch-screen voting machines, in the heart of Wexler's district west of Delray Beach.

After the old-fashioned computer punch-card voting system contributed to massive problems with the 2000 presidential election, Florida overhauled its election law. Most of the state's largest counties bought touch-screen machines.

Broward has spent about $20.4 million on touch-screen machines and Palm Beach County more than $14.4 million.

Wexler, who spent years battling Gov. Bush over the issue, was effusive in his praise for the new Republican governor.

"We have a governor in Charlie Crist, who in the highest form of bipartisan partnership, has reached out to me and has concluded that he now will become a champion of ensuring that each and every Floridian will have a paper trail and that their vote will be counted in the form that he or she wished it to be cast," Wexler said.