The procurement of additional election machines is likely to be Warren County’s response to long lines in last fall’s general election.

The commissioners met with Elections Director Lisa Rivett last month to discuss options heading into a presidential election year.

At that time, a final decision wasn’t made as Commissioner Jeff Eggleston wanted to more thoroughly flesh out the idea of implementing paper ballots.

But as the new board of Warren County Commissioners was discussing projects, Eggleston said, “I believe we decided, more or less, to lease more equipment.”

Formal action to lease that additional equipment has yet to take place.

“At this point, I would like to do a deep dive into the paper situation,” he said, but noted that “logistically… getting that together in a timely fashion” is a challenge.

Solicitor Nathaniel Schmidt said he would likely be recommending additional machines as there is “some statutory guidance” regarding a “legal threshold” that would need to be met to remove the machines.

Eggleston noted the county is “probably going to end up having 86 machines” and said that the “question now is where are we going to put them?”

The 10-year lease cost to the county for additional machines would increase from $65,089 to $68,109 — approximately $3,000 annually.

That would bring the level of machines up to what the county had with the old machines that were replaced for the most recent election.