Pennsylvania Secretary of State Pedro Cortes, on a visit to military bases in the Middle East and Europe, said yesterday that voting by soldiers abroad seems to be going smoothly, albeit with a few technical glitches.

"It is very encouraging to see that our troops have been able to vote successfully using our absentee ballot system, even though there have been a few complaints," Mr. Cortes said in a teleconference from Kuwait City.

He is part of a contingent of state officials from Pennsylvania, California, Indiana, Florida and Mississippi on a weeklong tour to look into voting practices on military bases abroad.

He said that the key complaints the group has heard include delays in soldiers receiving their ballots from county elections offices and a lack of confirmation that their processed ballots have been received or counted when they are returned.

"Those are some of the things we should be able to improve," he said.

Mr. Cortes and others are in Germany today, where they are visiting with military officials who are responsible for handling and processing voter registration forms and ballots at Ramstein Air Base.

The group started its tour in Iraq last week and proceeded to Afghanistan before arriving in Europe.

"We clarified for the military officials our position in terms of what we want to see in receipts of ballots," Mr. Cortes said.

Many counties, including 36 in Pennsylvania, have enrolled in the Department of Defense federal assistance program, which allows soldiers stationed abroad to receive their ballots electronically, Mr. Cortes said.

"By and large, the soldiers we have met have been very involved in following the election process back at home, and they seem just as excited about the election as everybody else," he said.