Salt Lake County leaders reluctantly signed on to the state's choice of electronic voting machines, unwilling to walk away from $10 million in federal funds for the Diebold machines.

But Salt Lake County Council members are still concerned the state's choice will leave the county with an additional $10 million price tag to get the staff, extra machines and storage space needed to run the Diebold system.

"I'm a little worried because we're in some uncharted territory," Mayor Peter Corroon said. "I'm not sure there's a better alternative out there, which is the problem."

But Corroon added the county has little choice if it is going to meet federal regulations passed under the Help America Vote Act that requires each state to upgrade its voting systems.

Although council members approved the resolution to support the state's choice Tuesday, they aired concerns that California recently rejected the machines and that federal funding is not enough to supply enough Diebold machines for the whole county.

The county will have to hire at least six new staffers to operate the machines, buy 1,156 new machines at a cost of roughly $4 million, and buy storage space that is projected to cost about $3 million.

"It would have been nice if our United States Congress had taken some of this into account. I think it's a stupid law," councilman David Wilde said.

Tuesday's resolution also pushes for county clerk Sherrie Swensen to negotiate with the state for financial and staff backup in case of glitches in the electronic system.

Swensen wants the state to chip in for a scanner that can read the Diebold's paper trail, and she wants assurance that if a paper audit has to be done by hand, the state will supply resources for that endeavor.

"Having to do this manually is just ridiculous," Swensen said of the paper trail that prints like a register receipt. "The paper trail is good to give voters confidence, but it isn't very logical to use this for an actual recount."

Swensen is also pushing for some extra funding from the state and a change in the traditional election day to allow early voting.

Without early voting, Swensen said residents will likely have to wait in long lines to cast their vote in the 2008 presidential election. Even if the county buys 1,156 new Diebolds to add to the state's 2,884, Swensen said, they will still have 1,000 machines fewer than voting locations in 2004.

"There's a shortfall, obviously. People aren't going to be happy with the new system if they have to wait in line," she said. "With early voting we wouldn't be trying to get hundreds of thousands of people in a restricted number of locations in a 13-hour day."

But while Swensen and Corroon want to lobby the state for early voting, several council members don't want economics to stand in the way of the traditional voting process.

Councilman Randy Horiuchi said the talk of early voting was gaining momentum in the county that is premature and based more on fear of high costs than on improving the democratic process.

"Think of the dynamics of what goes on in the last few days of a campaign. You do something to the election process that is wrong with early voting," he said. "I have a problem going against the tradition of election day because of economics and because Congress won't step up to the plate and help us out."

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E-mail: estewart@desnews.com