Leaders of the House and Senate set up a special panel yesterday to probe security issues surrounding electronic-voting devices that Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell wants to buy for Ohio. The move puts into limbo Blackwell's request before the state Controlling Board to spend more than $128 million on new voting machines. Blackwell hoped to replace punch-card ballots in at least 29 of the current 69 counties by the November presidential election. "The proposed delay would virtually eliminate the possibility of any deployment of new voting machines in 2004," Blackwell said in a letter to legislative leaders and Gov. Bob Taft. "With Ohio slated by both national parties as a battleground state, the possibility of a close (presidential) election with punch cards as the state's primary voting device invites a Florida-like calamity."