Carbon County officials want to make sure the voting machines are ready for the upcoming November election.

On Thursday, Lisa Dart, director of the Bureau of Elections, told the county election board that maintenance on the 140 machines has been scheduled for September.She said the voting machines were serviced last year, but a few problems, such as stands that the machines rest on are not working correctly, so she is having them all checked again to make sure they are fine.Dart said the service is covered under the maintenance agreement for the machines.Commissioner William O'Gurek added that the performance of the voting machines is the primary concern for the board.The electronic voting machines are eight years old, and according to previous articles, that time frame is old for a computer."We don't know if we are band-aiding them or not," O'Gurek said, adding that in 2012, the county had a few complaints after some of the machines' calibration changed during the presidential election.The glitches happened on two machines in Franklin and Towamensing townships. Those machines were not registering the presidential candidate the voter was trying to choose.The two machines were taken out of service for the remainder of the election.At that time though, the commissioners reported that the county was "not aware of any votes that were improperly cast or counted."As a result the county spent approximately $14,000 to have the machines recalibrated and the problem was resolved."As an election board we want to make sure these machines are functioning well and are prepared for this election and many more," O'Gurek said, noting that sometime down the road, Carbon will have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase new equipment.Commissioner Wayne Nothstein, chairman, added that when the county purchased the machines in 2006, government funding was available to offset the cost. At this time, not much help is available.In other matters, Dart announced that the SS. Peter and Paul School building will remain a polling place during the upcoming election.