Cache County Clerk Jill Zollinger said it is not only the cost of the machines that concerns her but the expense of upkeep and training.

"I'm a little reluctant, because I think it will be quite expensive, not only with the initial cost to go in to purchase the equipment, but then the upkeep after," she said. "There are so many things we don't know yet: how much it will cost and how much upkeep is necessary, programming and storage, because it depends on which machine they choose."

In Wayne County, a smaller, older population has made paper ballots the voting method of choice. County Clerk Ryan Torgerson said he'll go along with the state's decision, but he'd rather stick with the paper ballot.

"I sent a comment to (Lt. Gov.) Gary Herbert today telling him that we still use the paper ballot, and quite frankly, we'd like to continue to use it," he said. "We have a lot of elderly people, and they don't want to learn how to run computers."

Torgerson estimates the cost for upgrading to machines in his county will be about $50,000, none of which would be paid with federal money. "There's some money for punch-card buyout, but we still use paper ballots, so we wouldn't get any of that money," he said. "It's just hard, when the federal government mandates something, but it's underfunded."

There is a possibility that the state government could make up the difference, but Torgerson said he hasn't had guarantees.

"(Former Lt. Gov. Olene Walker) was going to give us a little bit more from another pool, so it was going to end up costing the county around $14,000," he said. "But with the new lieutenant governor, I don't know what (he's) looking at. Fifty-thousand dollars might be a little tough; I'm sure we'd get past it, but it would dry us a little; $15,000, we could probably swing that."

State Elections Director Michael Cragun said counties also are concerned about the time frame for implementing a change. Federal law requires systems to be in place by Jan. 1 — eight months from now.

"The general feedback I've been getting from all the counties is just concerns about being able to manage the change and having enough time to make the change," Cragun said. "Most of the concerns stem from not knowing exactly what the system is that is going to be purchased at this point. Once that question is answered, then we'll be able to start addressing questions of cost, storage and procedure changes."

Cragun said Herbert is pushing for a committee decision on voting equipment in the next few weeks.

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E-mail: mdecker@desnews.com