Absentee voters are already getting to experience using new touch-screen electronic voting machines in some counties in South Carolina. But for Congressman James Clyburn, D-6th District, that experience during a demonstration of the machines wasn't a good one.

They're supposed to be easy to use. For the people voting absentee Wednesday in Lexington County, they were.

But Clyburn ran into a problem. The instruction booklet from the State Election Commission says step one is for a poll worker to activate the ballot by inserting a cartridge. The worker did that, then stepped away from the voting booth.

Step two in the instructions is to then select your candidates by touching the box next to their names. But there were no names on the screen or boxes to touch. The instructions offered no help.

Clyburn finally touched the screen and the ballot appeared, but he's worried that many voters won't know to do that.

But there's a simple explanation for why he ran into that problem, according to the State Election Commission. He happened to be using a machine for the demonstration that was set up to be used by handicapped voters. It's set to be an audio ballot for visually impaired voters, and you can see the ballot only if you touch the screen.

Most voters won't run into the same problem. The ballot should come up automatically without having to touch the screen first, according to the State Election Commission.

But if you're voting and happen to find a blank screen, now you know what to do.

Those new machines will be used in the following counties: Abbeville, Aiken, Anderson, Calhoun, Cherokee, Florence, Greenville, Greenwood, Kershaw, Lexington, Oconee, Pickens, Spartanburg, Union and York.

For a demonstration of the machines so you'll be familiar with them before you vote, go to http://www.scvotes.org/.