NATCHEZ — Everyone knows there’s a price to pay for democracy. But for Adams County, the meaning is literal.

The county board of supervisors increased the election commission’s budget to $45,000 at Monday’s meeting just for the upcoming primary elections.

Supply costs for the Democratic and Republican primaries — which for all practical purposes serve as two elections — are adding up, Election Commission Chairman Larry Gardner said.

Because the upcoming election has the highest number of candidates running — possibly in the county’s recent history — Gardner said it was more expensive.

More people will turn out, he said, requiring more machines and more supplies.

From $295-encoders, which program the machines, to $307-cartridges, which print a paper trail, the new electronic voting machines have extra costs involved — costs the county has to pay.

“Nobody had told us about all the expenses,” Gardner said. “We’ve got to buy the necessary equipment.”

And it’s not just supplies that are necessary for the upcoming county elections, Gardner said.

“We need to train poll workers,” Gardner said. “Eighty-five percent of the people voting in August will have never seen or touched the machines.”

Audrey Seale, vice chair of the county democratic executive committee, agreed.

“We’re losing poll workers left and right,” Seale said. “We have to have them.”

The new technology could potentially throw off voters, Gardner said. That’s why it was so important to have adequately trained workers, and plenty of them.

“Frankly, it scares the heck out of some of these people,” Gardner said. “(The poll workers) have to understand the machines inside and out.”

Supervisor Sammy Cauthen motioned to approve the commission’s budget increase to $45,000, but got no immediate second.

“We’ve got to have an election, and we’ve got to pay for it,” Cauthen said.

Finally, Supervisor Thomas “Boo” Campbell seconded the motion, and it passed.

And more expenses could be coming if one or both sides requires a runoff election, a distinct possibility, Gardner said.

In other business:

4The board approved purchasing roughly $1.4 million in road equipment. The county will auction roughly $1 million worth of old road equipment at an auction this weekend.

4The board voted to allow the local economic development authority board of directors to serve as a potential utility commission. The county has looked at setting up such a commission to supervise water and sewer services at the International Paper site. Rentech is has expressed interest in locating on that site.

The supervisors have discussed creating a county utility authority to manage the IP site water and sewer facilities and other potential economic developments.

4The board met in executive session to discuss personnel in the road department.

The next board meeting will be 9 a.m. May 21.