ELIZABETHTOWN -- Essex County received 22 new electronic voting machines this week, but where to keep them may be a problem.

The county intended to store the machines in the modular jail that was emptied out after the new County Jail in Lewis opened late last year.

But a letter from the State Board of Elections cautioned counties about storing voting machines in a secure place, so the modular jail will have to be protected.

County Democratic Election Commissioner David Mace said it will cost about $1,500 to replace locks on the old modular jail, but the state may reimburse the county.

The next step is to train election personnel on the new machines, County Republican Election Commissioner Lewis Sanders said.

"Once we get these new machines we'll have to certify them (workers)," Sanders said.

The two deputy commissioners will help with the training, he said, and part-time help will be used to enter new voter registrations in the database.

They also have to hire two part-time drivers, a Republican and a Democrat, to transport the machines to poll sites for the September primary, Mace said.

"With respect to the new machines they have to be trucked to and from the poll sites, and we have to pay people to do that."

That will cost about $3,600, he said, plus another $6,000 for the part-time clerks.

Two professional drivers, a Highway Department worker and a United Parcel Service driver, will be hired for the transportation, Mace said.

"If we don't do this we might as well not have the machines, as we'd be in violation of the court order."

The state is under a federal court order to switch to electronic voting machines and abandon the mechanical lever-type machines that have been in use, in some instances, since the 1930s.

About $5,600 that's not in the County Board of Elections budget will be taken from the county contingency account.

When Sanders and Mace briefed the County Board of Supervisors on the new machines, it was not without a squabble over who authorized what.