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A panel studying ways to improve Colorado's election system has recommended that the state get rid of electronic voting machines and move to an all-paper system by 2014.

Larimer County Clerk Scott Doyle, chairman of the technology subcommittee of the state's Election Reform Commission, said studies have raised questions about the machines' reliability.

"Pre-eminent computer scientists have come to a scientific consensus that the (e-voting) technology is a bad idea," elections attorney Paul Hultin, another subcommittee member, said at an Election Reform Commission meeting Tuesday.

As a concession to county clerks who favor e-voting, the committee's recommendation would allow counties to continue using their current electronic voting machines through the 2013 elections and would waive a requirement set to take effect next year to mandate all e-voting machines have a paper trail voters can see.