Morris County’s all-Republican commissioners are divided not so much over voting, but how voting takes place.

This was quite apparent last week when Commissioner Tom Mastrangelo waged a passionate, and ultimately losing, battle against the county’s choice of voting system provider.

Mastrangelo essentially argued his point twice – at the work session and then an hour later at the board’s regular meeting.

“Maybe I’m not popular because I raise these issues,”: he said once, quickly adding that he doesn’t care.

What’s happening in Morris with voting systems is not unique. Other counties around the state are confronting the same problem.

A new voting system is needed because of the advent this fall of early voting.

Election officials say that requires a “paper trail,” which some current systems can’t produce.

In Morris, the choice came down to Elections Systems & Software and Dominion Voting Systems.

The board selected ESS in a 4-2 vote. The value of the contract is about $1.4 million and the state will pay for it. Mastrangelo and Commissioner Doug Cabana were in the negative.

The specter of Dominion, of course, added some national spice to the drama.

After being accused of manipulating votes last fall by Donald Trump and many of his supporters. Dominion just filed suit against right-wing media outlets Newsmx and OAN. It has other suits pending too.

The national storm over Dominion didn’t pop up in the Morris discussion, at least not publicly.

A bi-partisan panel put together by the commissioners to review the two companies recommended ESS.

Mastrangelo, among other things, was unhappy with the panel, saying he wanted John Sette to be on it. Sette was active in Morris politics for more than 30 years,

At varying times, he was a freeholder, a board of elections member, a park commission member and chair of the Morris County Republican Committee. But Sette was not named to the panel.

Mastrangelo also argued that voting with the Dominion system is far easier than it is with ESS.

In fact, the ESS system is twice as difficult, according to Mastrangelo, He said voters must move through 12 steps to vote with the ESS system, but only six with Dominion.

Far more inflammatory were hints by Mastrangelo that ESS lobbyists worked hard to get the Morris contract.

In fact, he referred, without specifics, to ESS lobbyists “hanging around” the county for some time.

Board members seemed a bit ruffled by Mastrangelo’s suggestion, but none tangled with him publicly.

Like all government contracts, competition could be keen, so lobbying should not be a surprise. It’s not as if Dominion doesn’t do the same. Campaign contributions are also part of the game.

Mastrangelo urged his colleagues to delay the vote and to review what he suggested was much negative public information about ESS.

“If you didn’t do your homework, you have no right to vote,” he said.

Soon after that, commissioners – with or without their homework done – voted.