Dozens of West Virginia counties are still without the federally mandated electronic voting machines for early elections - and Marshall County is planning for the worst.

Marshall County elections officials are still waiting for the programmed cartridges that were promised last week.

Now, with each passing day, elections officials may have to forego the machines and order paper ballots instead.

"If we don't hear something by the end of the week, it looks like we might have to abandon the electronic system," said Jake Padlow, Marshall County Commission president.

Early voting began last week, and the primary elections are only two weeks away. Padlow said something must be done soon to make sure the election runs smoothly.

Because touch screen voting machines are electronic, each election requires a new cartridge with the ballot information programmed inside. Padlow said if they must order paper ballots, the county will seek to recover the cost from the company contracted to program the machines.

He said the paper ballots would only be used for the primary elections, and said voters will use the touch-screen machines in November.

According to officials for the Secretary of State, every county is still expected to have the final programmed ballots by the May 9 primary elections.

Ohio County officials said they expected to receive their programmed information on Tuesday, and a public testing period is set there for Wednesday afternoon.

-Renee Cardelli & Barbara Anderson, NEWS9