Schuylkill County will be getting 400 new voting machines that print paper records.

But officials are still sorting out how to pay the $2.2 million cost.

County commissioners on Thursday approved a grant allocation through the Pennsylvania Department of State that will provide $142,000 in grant money toward the cost.

The Help America Vote Act grant is through the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018. The federal legislation, signed into law in March, includes $380 million in grants to states to enhance technology and make certain election security improvements.

County commissioners needed to have the grant documents signed and returned to state by Nov. 30 in order to receive the funds, said County Administrator Gary R. Bender.

The county has options, including taking the balance of the cost from the general fund, Bender said.

The fund is fueled by tax revenues that generate about $2.2 million per mill.

The other options are to lease the machines for five to eight years, or to take out a loan, Bender said.

He said the county must have the machines in place by the 2020 primary election. Bender would like to see them used in the 2019 general election, but that’s up to the commissioners.

“I think it’s a lot of money, but people want to see a paper trail,” Bender said. “I’m totally convinced our machines working, but they are 10 years old now. We will certainly comply and get new machines.”

The county also has yet to choose a company to provide the new machines.

“Dominion Voting Systems has given a presentation,” Bender said. The county is also looking at proposals from Election IQ, and Election Solutions & Software, its current vendor.

“We’ll be analyzing these proposals and we will pick from there,” Bender said.

The new machines will be pretty much the same as the ones now in use, except that they will produce paper ballots.

“You’ll be able to look to verify your vote,” Bender said.

If results are different from the votes cast, that ballot would be canceled and the person would vote again.

The paper record will then be put back into the machine and stored. Voters cannot take the paper with them.

“Voters’ names will not be on the paper, just the record of how that person voted,” he said.

The paper records could be subpoenaed and used in a court challenge of the election, he said.