ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- The state Board of Elections is expected to submit a new voting machines plan to a federal judge Friday, which would be its last chance to develop a timeline for complying with a federal election law intended to improve voting accuracy and accessibility.

U.S. District Court Judge Gary Sharpe made it clear last month that the board must find a way to meet the requirements of the Help America Vote Act, or he could appoint a special master to run elections and even put board members in jail on contempt charges.

Last month the board submitted two plans to the judge - which Sharpe declared a "paralysis" of government and unacceptable. The new, single plan must have specific deadlines for every step the state will take to comply with the law, which was created after the contested 2000 presidential elections to ensure accuracy.

The U.S. Department of Justice sued New York over the issue in 2006 and Sharpe has given the state 18 months to come into compliance.

New York is the last state that has failed to meet the requirements of HAVA.

The board will submit the plan by e-mail sometime Friday and Sharpe will likely respond at the beginning of next week at the earliest, said Lee Daghlian, spokesman for the board.

HAVA requires the state to provide at least one machine accessible to the disabled per polling place. New York currently has at least one disabled-accessible machine per county. The most pressing need in New York is to make sure accessible machines are available to the disabled, according to the Department of Justice.

HAVA also requires New York to replace all pull-lever voting machines and to install HAVA-certified machines that provide a paper record and give the voter an opportunity to edit his vote to make sure it's accurate.

The elections board must first create a plan with a specific timeline for providing the disabled with access to voting machines, but it also must plan to come into full compliance with the law and determine if they it be able to replace pull-lever machines by the 2008 election, or if it will be delayed until 2009.

Part of the problem is that New York state's requirements for voting machines are more strict than the federal government's, and no machine has met the standard.

Sharpe has said that federal law trumps state law and that those laws should be in place by now.

Some voting advocates have objected to the federal government's desire to rush the state into selecting a machine. Testing and finding a HAVA-compliant machine and training poll workers and the public on how to use them is time consuming, said Barbara Bartoletti, of the League of Women Voters.

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