LAUDERHILL, Fla. -- The general election is still five months away, but Broward County's Supervisor of Elections said it’s never to early to practice.

Election workers are holding a mock vote at the Lauderhill mall Wednesday to give voters, and themselves, an opportunity to practice with the county’s new voting machines.

Those high tech electronic voting machines are gone. And for the first time, voters in Broward will use a paper ballot to pick their president. You simply fill in the ovals next to your candidate's name, then slip the ballot through the optical scanner.

Phyllis Chance said it was easy enough and it left her feeling more confident that her vote will count.

“It’s better from the standpoint of having a paper trail. Now you have something, a hard copy, so you can see what you’re doing,” Chance told Local 10’s Roger Lohse.

Broward County opted for the optical scanning system after state leaders banned the electronic machines last year. The state bought about 750 of the new optical scanners while the county purchased an additional 500. Each one costs $5,500.

Much of the computer tabulation software is the same with the new paper system but the new process involves a few more steps. That’s why election officials said Wednesday's mock vote was so critical.

“We have to be prepared. We need to know what can go wrong. This is the first time Broward has ever used a paper ballot and we went out to other counties that use them, so we know what to expect beforehand,” said elections spokesman Gino Herring.

By mid-afternoon Wednesday there were no problems to report. The Supervisor of Elections will hold a few more simulated elections between now and November just to make sure they get all of the kinks out of the system.