TOMPKINSVILLE — Monroe County magistrates are contemplating the purchase of new voting machines.

Magistrates listened to a presentation Friday by County Clerk Teresa Sheffield and Butch Pass with Harp Enterprises, a Lexington-based company, regarding a voting machine that scans paper ballots. The cost of the new voting machines for the county’s 12 precincts is $54,000.

“The only funds the fiscal court would need to expend would be approximately $900 per precinct for the necessary equipment required for each precinct, such as tables, ballot bags and screens,” Sheffield said.

Federal money through the Help America Vote Act have been made available to the county to purchase the machines, however, that money must be spent before June 30, 2010.

“If we don’t do this now, it could cost the county up to $72,600,” Sheffield said.

Pass pointed out that the new voting machines would create “a paper audit trail,” which he says is what the federal government is trying to get everyone to do.

The county currently has e-slate voting machines, which it purchased in 2006 also with monies through the Help America Vote Act. The e-slate machines replaced the lever-type machines the county had used for roughly 50 years.

The only e-slate machines the county would keep would be the ones that are deemed handicapped accessible. The manufacturer of the e-slate voting machines would buy back the remaining e-slate voting machines at a cost of $500 per machine, which Pass said will cover the county’s expense for additional equipment.

Pass recommended the county purchase two additional voting machines for a total of 14.

“You will need one for the replacement (of another) if one went bad on election day and (to) use the other one to read absentee ballots at the end of the night,” he said.

The county is being offered the machines at a discounted price that will be good until Dec. 31.

“Monroe County has some unique problems and part of it is because the machines are slow,” Pass said, adding that slow machines equals long lines. “You have people wanting to vote early to avoid those lines.”

Pass said up to three machines can be placed at each precinct.

“This is an investment,” he said. “It will pay for itself. Folks, I just want you all to have an easier election.”

Other area counties with voting machines that already use paper ballots are Barren, Allen and Metcalfe counties. Pass said officials in Cumberland and Russell counties are also thinking about purchasing the machines.

Magistrate Alonzo Ford said he doesn’t like the e-slate voting machines the county now has.

Sheffield pointed out that in 2006 the e-slate machine was the only type of voting machine that was available.

The county could purchase a touchscreen model, but Pass said those voting machines are not very efficient because they have to be recalibrated often.

Magistrate Jeff Proffitt pointed out that the county was gearing up for a big election in May.

“What scares me about these, I mean, here we’re going to be coming up with a heavy election in May and these will be the first time those will be used,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of people who’s sort of scared to vote anyway. We have a lot of election fraud and a lot of people are just scared right now. People are scared right now and I don’t blame them.”

Ford pointed out that the proposed voting machine would be simpler.

“We just went through a simple thing with the Wellness Center that got blown completely (out of proportion),” Judge-Executive Wilbur Graves.

“We finally got that solved, maybe,” Ford said.

Magistrates took no action Friday to buy new voting machines. Instead, they will take the issue under advisement and make a decision at a later date.