AP Wire Service

Southfield, Mich, a Detroit suburb, recently bought 500 old punch key voting machines from Pasco County, Fla., for $5 each and plans to use them to cut lines at polling places next year.

The city of 75,000 is one of the few area communities that still uses punch key voting.

``Such a deal!'' said Southfield Clerk Nancy Banks. She said the city will use the Votomatic machines as extra voting booths. The city already has ample punch card machines but needs someplace to rest them.

``We've had complaints about long lines on election day,'' Banks told The Detroit News for a story Tuesday.

Florida banned punch card ballots after the 2000 presidential election, which was settled by the U.S. Supreme Court.

``We needed to get rid of them quickly,'' said Kurt Browning, election supervisor in Pasco County.

The Votomatics will be shipped from the county north of St. Petersburg in the next two weeks. They are not expected to be used in the November election for mayor and city council because the turnout is not expected to be high enough.

Southfield's punch card system includes a scanner in each precinct that immediately spits out any improperly punched ballots. That eliminates the confusion of dangling, dimpled, hanging, swinging or pregnant chads.