ELIZABETHTOWN -- Essex County might have taken possession of all the lever-action voting machines in the county, but it can't do much with them after this year.

County Republican Election Commissioner Lewis Sanders said the State Board of Elections told them they must scrap the old machines.

"After November of 2008, no one can use the old voting machines for anything. It will be against the law."

The machines had been owned by towns and were turned over to the county under provisions of the federal Help America Vote Act.

"So what that means is that the school districts that use the voting machines now will not be able to use them," Sanders said. "Some of the fire districts that use them will not be able to use them.

"They can use our new machines, but they are going to have to go through the Board of Elections to get permission to do that. So, in saying all that, that means we are probably going to be administering all of these elections where they use voting machines to have their elections, like school board, fire districts, village elections and what have you."

If the non-municipal bodies want to use paper ballots instead of voting machines, that would be fine, County Democratic Election Commissioner David Mace said.

"That is always an option, even if they are currently using machines. It would be cheaper to go to paper ballots and avoid the issue."

The county will use the lever machines one last time this year, plus one electronic voting machine at each polling place.

"We are going to have to have a pair of extra poll workers for the new machines, both, I think, as a practical matter but also by law."

He said an additional Republican and Democrat worker will be required by the state in each poll.

"The cost of that for the general election, assuming we pay them the same that we pay other election workers of $10 an hour, is $8,640. That is the minimum."

The county will pay the money from its contingency account.

The County Board of Elections is also planning to consolidate elections districts in Jay and Chesterfield and will hold public hearings on the plan.

The polling site in Chesterfield's Port Kent hamlet doesn't meet HAVA standards, Mace said.