Carbon County is beginning preparations for next month's presidential primary.

Republicans and Democrats will cast their vote for their presidential nominee choice on April 26.On Thursday, the county commissioners voted to rent 15 electronic machines from IQ Voting Systems for both the primary and general elections this year at a total cost of $3,000."We want to ensure that we have enough machines for the presidential elections because of the higher-than-normal turnouts," Commissioners' Chairman Wayne Nothstein said."This year is a different kind of election," Commissioner Thomas J. Gerhard said."I have never seen anything like it. The Republicans are beating themselves up, the Democrats are doing the same. We're expecting a high turnout."Lisa Dart, elections director, said that in nonpresidential elections, the county uses 124 electronic voting machines in its 51 precincts; but because of an expected larger voter turnout with the presidential election, the county will utilize 137 machines in both elections this year.In the last presidential election, nearly 68 percent of Carbon County voters turned out at the polls.As of Thursday, Dart said there were 18,287 Democrats, and 15,452 Republicans registered for the election, but those numbers may change over the next month.Carbon County residents have until March 28 to register to vote.Nothstein stressed the importance of exercising your right to vote, noting that in previous races on local levels, determining the winner came down to only a few votes or a tiebreaker.If you can't make it to your polling place on Election Day for various reasons, Nothstein said that you should request an absentee ballot.Deadline to request an absentee ballot, according to the Carbon County Elections Bureau's website, is April 19, and the deadline to return that ballot is April 22.Visit the bureau, at 76 Susquehanna St., Jim Thorpe between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday or call 570-325-4801.