DENVER -- Can the voting machines that were responsible for voting in the past be trusted in future elections?

That's the question that Colorado's secretary of state is wrestling with. Secretary of State Mike Coffman on Thursday heard arguments for and against electronic voting machines.

The voting machines at the center of the debate were purchased by Colorado counties in part to comply with federal law that requires elections to be more friendly to disabled voters.

But there have been problems, and the question now is, should these devices be rolled back out in the future?

Natalie Orrell is blind and independent, but she used to have to depend on someone to fill out her ballot on Election Day.

"I can trust that they're marking the ballot, but can I trust that they're marking it right in the way that I want it to be marked? No, not really," she said.

To her, electronic voting machines with audio ballots were a godsend, but not everyone is a fan.

"Direct Recording Electronic voting machines, or DREs, have shown to be insecure, inaccurate, only partially accessible and unreliable," said Claudia Kuhns with the Public Integrity Project.

As many voters learned last November, DREs can break down. Votes have been lost. Some argue the machines are vulnerable to tampering. Others don't like the paper records of each ballot. Among the critics at Thursday's state hearing were computer programmers.

"I know people who do high-level security on computers. They don't trust DREs," said Jeff Cook, with HonestElections.us.

Supporters of the devices say the criticisms are overblown.

"That's where the election judges are the sergeant of arms of these precincts, or vote centers, to make sure that we don't have anybody tampering with the machines," said Steve Moreno, with the Weld County Clerk and Recorder.

"It's also possible for a voting system to be struck by a meteorite, but that's very unlikely," said Neil McClure, with Hart Intercivic Voting Systems.

Opponents of DREs want a blended system, perhaps a combination of paper ballots and auto-marking machines. They too concede there's no perfect voting machine.

What is clear is that there's nothing simple nowadays about the words "I voted."

Although Coffman is the state's chief election officer, he can't tell counties what voting systems to use. But he does have a lot of influence on what counties do in the future.