Carbon County officials are gearing up for the upcoming presidential election.

This week, Commissioner Wayne Nothstein reminded residents that the county ordered nearly two dozen additional machines to make sure there are enough electronic voting machines for the election.In recent years, the county has experienced issues with the machines not functioning properly or the cards not working.Lisa Dart, county elections director, said that the company contracted with the county just finished a series of tests and maintenance with the machines to make sure they are working efficiently.Nothstein said the machines are also tested before each election.The election board then diverged from the upcoming election to the future, speaking about the costs to maintain the current machines, the exorbitant cost for new equipment and what they feel the county should have to eliminate potential problems.When the county purchased the machines years ago, a federal grant covered the cost, but now, the expense would fall on the county, Nothstein said.“That’s something we have to plan for in the future,” he said, noting that new machines will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.“We’re hoping to keep these machines until 2020,” Dart said.Commissioner William O’Gurek said that the current machines come with an enormous cost each election, including loading cards and ballots, testing the machines, preparing the ballots and making the machines accessible to those with seeing and hearing disabilities.He said he hopes to see the county move toward a scanning machine once new equipment is required.The scanning machine would include paper ballots, which would be scanned into the system, providing a physical copy of the votes in case a recount is necessary.Commissioners Thomas J. Gerhard and Nothstein both agreed that a scanner would be best, but Dart said the current election law must be altered to provide for that service.Albrightsville resident Charles Weber asked the board if there are any possibilities of infiltration into the current electronic system because recent reports are raising these concerns.Dart said that there is no Internet connection with any of the electronic voting machines.