A seemingly exasperated Morris County Commissioner John Krickus had enough.

“Do we want Morris County to be the Florida of the 2022 election?” Krickus asked at last week’s commission meeting. Sure, this was a bit melodramatic, but it made the point.

Just why are the all-Republican commissioners continuing to battle over a pretty basic responsibility of county government – buying voting machines?

Politics is one reason.

On this issue, the board has split into two factions.

On one side is the four-person majority of Deborah Smith, Stephen Shaw, Tayfun Selen and Krickus.

On the other side you have Kathy DeFillippo, Tom Mastrangelo and Doug Cabana.

Mastrangelo and Cabana are running for reelection, but three of their colleagues, Smith, Shaw and Krickus, have endorsed Sarah Neibart for a commissioner’s position.

What’s more, the same trio – along with Selen – late last year asked the state to investigate Mastrangelo for a possible ethics violation.

That had to do with voting machines as well.

So, you can see that the feelings here are a little raw.

In short, the commissioners last year agreed to buy machines designed by Elections Systems & Software, or ESS, on the advice of an in-house committee. Mastrangelo objected to the process that picked ESS. And his alleged ethics violation is threatening the job security of an employee who recommended the ESS purchase.

The original buy was needed to accommodate early voting, which commenced last fall; now the county has to buy machines for all its voting needs this year and going forward.

And earlier this month, the commissioners in a 4-3 vote introduced a $4.9 million ordinance to do just that.

But that was not the end of the matter. It was just a pause in the battle.

An ordinance can be “introduced” with a simple majority, but it needs a so-called super majority – five votes out of seven – to be adopted.

And so when the commissioners convened last week, the three-person minority had the upper hand by virtue of arithmetic alone.

They took advantage.

Cabana moved to table the ordinance as soon as it came up on the agenda. He said it would be a “courtesy.

DeFillippo said waiting two more weeks to act would not be the end of the world.

No, but it could cause problems.

Members of the county Board of Elections, a bi-partisan group that has custody of voting machines, were on hand. Their message was that considering delivery time and the need to train workers on the new machines in time for the June primary, the county has to move quickly.

Nonetheless, Cabana and others sharing his view said they needed more time to review particulars of the purchase.

The four-person majority wasn’t buying it.

Smith said everyone knew this issue was coming up and that there was ample time to read up on the details. After all, as she pointed out, commissioners are paid to do this work.

It was also pointed out that the ordinance was just appropriating the money through a bond. The actual resolution to purchase the machines will come later.

The upshot was that those not satisfied with ESS could still move the process along by supporting the funding ordinance and talk about the actual purchase in a few weeks.

But the opponents would not budge.

Finally, Selen, the commission director and also a congressional candidate in CD-11, saw what was happening. Realizing the ordinance would not be passed,  he agreed to table it to a special meeting on March 8. A special meeting is needed to make sure the new machines are ready in time for the primary and to avoid any problems – like Florida in 2000 to use Krickus’ analogy.

One thing that will happen between now and March 8 is this week’s Morris County Republican convention to endorse candidates for commissioner and Congress.

That involves Cabana, Mastrangelo and CD-11 aspirant Selen. Whether the convention vote impacts the politics of the voting machine issue remains to be seen.