JEFFERSON COUNTY, Ark — As early voting enters its second week, 11 of Arkansas's 75 counties are recording votes on outdated machines.
This is leaving one county official worried the machines won't hold up when the rush of voters enter the polls for Super Tuesday.
Stuart Soffer, Jefferson County Election Commissioner, said they are in desperate need of new machines.
"We're at the point where now is the time to replace them," he said.
It's out with the old, but where is the new?
Soffer said aging equipment is causing hurdles when voters cast their ballots in Jefferson County.
"We had 12 machines at early voting and one of them just died the first day," he said.
It's an issue Soffer said they've been dealing with for several years.
"They're worn out. It's just that simple. They're worn out," he said.
The iVotronics machines were purchased in 2005.
Then, two years ago, flooding forced the county to borrow from neighbors.
Soffer said the county was left with machines that are glitchy, die randomly, and are difficult to operate.
Sven Hipp, lead technician, said the machines are outdated.
"I would say, like a DOS program versus windows program almost. That's how far behind I feel like we are," he said.
To put it into perspective, there are two legs that literally fell off the bottom of one of the voting machines.
New voting machines would cost $980,000 and it's money Soffer said the county doesn't have.
"We have to come up with $300,000 in matching funds," he said.
With funds and grants seeming far out of reach, Hipp said the county is taking matters into their own hands.
"We'll have nine technicians assigned to the 39 polling sites, on average, to have five sites apiece," he said.
"All voters will be able to vote. There's a backup plan for everything. We have all kinds of plans in place," Hipp added.
As Super Tuesday looms, Soffer fears these machines, in need of TLC, will create long lines and aggravated voters.
"We do not want any voter in Jefferson County disenfranchised," he said.
Tuesday afternoon, the Jefferson County Election Commission Office's trained high school students at White Hall, so that they will be able to serve on election day.
The teens will be doing much more than assisting people in-and-out of the polls. They will actually be hands-on as election officials.