"It's really of critical importance that the warehouse be climate-controlled," said James Clayton, coordinator of the voting technology center in Ocean County.
"There are electronic components," he said. "And while I'm sure the machines can handle a certain amount of humidity, I'm sure that their lifespan would be extended if they weren't constantly subjected to it."
Bergen's Sequoia voting machines have survived a decade of hot and humid New Jersey summers.
"It absorbs the moisture, and it bubbles up," said Daryl Mahoney, assistant director of the county's voting machine division.
"We can't send it out if it's yellow."
With windows and doors shut, the temperature in Bergen's 30,000-square-foot voting machine warehouse can reach 110 degrees on an average summer day, said Mahoney, who works at the warehouse full time.
For security reasons, "we don't want to keep the doors open," Mahoney said. For humanitarian reasons, he and his colleagues have no choice but to let some air in occasionally.
"You're sweating and dripping all over the ballots," Mahoney said. "It's crazy."
Voting machines must be certified by an independent tester before they can be used, and federal guidelines suggest that all machines survive a "shake and bake test," of extreme heat and duress, said Jeannie Layson, a spokeswoman for the federal Elections Assistance Commission.
Following federally recommended guidelines, Sequoia voting machines -- used in 18 of the state's 21 counties -- can withstand 140-degree heat in storage, Sequoia spokeswoman Michelle Shafer said. But the company suggests climate control for optimal results.
For particularly hot and humid climates, such as New Orleans', a special coating is available for the computer's circuit boards, she said.
A federal lawsuit is still pending against the state and Sequoia in which a citizens group alleges the company does not have the technology to equip its machines with a paper ballot printer by a state-imposed deadline of January.
Nevertheless, the state budget passed this month contains $30 million to help counties retrofit their voting machines to include printers by the deadline, said Wald of the Attorney General's Office.
That money does not include the costs of installing air conditioning, he said. Or the added power costs of running it.
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