It only takes a matter of minutes to set up an electronic voting machine, but the process, along with the fact that they’re computers, intimidates older precinct judges.

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“It is a little intimidating. It’s a device. It looks like a computer. It is a computer to a certain extent. The paper ballot was just a lot simpler,” said J.R. Perez, Fort Bend County’s elections administrator.

But the paper ballot is gone.

Many older precinct judges, the ones who manage polling places, are leaving too.

They're evidently frightened by the electronic process.

Of Fort Bend’s 210 positions 123 of them, almost 60 percent, are vacant, which could all lead to problems for the November election.

The worst case scenario, County Judge Bob Hebert said, is that without poll workers the Commissioners Court would have to consider consolidating precincts.

That’s sort of a nuclear option though and something everyone hopes to avoid.

“It is an issue," Perez said. "It’s not something we can’t work past, but it does tend to intimidate people sometime."

Fort Bend County already offers e-vote training.

It’s considering having others set up and break down the machines, a nd is still looking for other incentives to attract  precinct judges and prevent problems at the polls.

Interested in working the polls?

Call Fort Bend County Elections Office at (281) 341-8670 or e-mail inquiries at: vote@co.fort-bend.tx.us