Denver's director of elections, Michael Scarpello, won't start work until Aug. 20. But he's already speaking our language. So is Clerk and Recorder Stephanie O'Malley - at least in their discussions of next year's elections.

When O'Malley introduced Scarpello last week, both promised to keep an open mind about the polling method they believe would be best for Denver in 2008. (The 2007 election will be mail-only.) Neither has a preference for vote centers, neigh- borhood precincts or "superprecincts" - which would let voters in adjacent precincts cast their ballots at designated locations throughout the city.

Good. The leaders of Denver's new election hierarchy, which was created by January's charter reform, should start fresh. The meltdown of the online registration network in November 2006 made it impossible to immediately verify voter identities; as a result, balloting lagged and lines stretched for blocks. As many as 20,000 voters gave up and went home without casting ballots that Election Day.

Considering the alternatives, our clear preference would be for Denver to adopt superprecincts.

Imagine a few dozen polling places spread around the city, each handling the balloting for residents in the surrounding neighborhood. Voters could cast their ballots on Election Day only at the designated superprecinct site.

This would allow voting officials to maintain physical registration records at the superprecinct. And it would eliminate the biggest nightmare of vote centers: the electronic poll book containing registration records for all Denver voters.

Such a networked system is the only way to minimize fraud at vote centers - otherwise, a voter could cast a ballot at several centers. Superprecincts combine the efficiency of large polling places with security; registration records could be accessed only at the polling site.

We hope O'Malley and Scarpello come to agree that the superprecinct model is superior. Of course, what they want may not matter, because the irresistible force (if not the immovable object) that will dictate the city's decision will be the Help America Vote Act, particularly its mandates that guarantee access to disabled voters.

Next year, every disabled U.S. voter must be able to cast a ballot at a polling place unassisted. That means no help from election officials, family members, you name it.

It's a laudable goal. But as Election Division spokesman Alton Dillard told us, the HAVA regulations that detail the accommodations polling places must make for disabled voters span 44 pages.

Many of the churches, schools and other facilities that Denver used in the days before vote centers and HAVA would never satisfy the current law.

Unless Washington eases those mandates, Denver may be stuck with vote centers. It may be impossible to find enough places throughout the city to set up HAVA-compliant superprecincts.

Whatever technology Denver chooses will not prevent residents from voting by mail, if that's what they prefer. Colorado's liberal absentee voting rules make it easy to get mail-in ballots.

If Denver officials decide that vote centers offer the most reasonable way to comply with federal mandates in 2008, we'd imagine that a lot more Denverites will choose mail ballots. The nightmares of 2006 won't soon be forgotten.