Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell on Tuesday unveiled the nation's first mobile recording kiosk that will allow residents to submit documents without driving to offices in Mesa and downtown Phoenix.

The blue machine has a computer system, a touch screen and scanner, and it connects residents to a live operator at the recorder's office in downtown Phoenix.

Officials likely will set up the photo kiosk at a facility in the West Valley, said Barbara Frerichs-Mendoza, chief deputy recorder. Eventually, the office hopes to buy between seven and 15 of the machines and set them up Valley wide.

"It allows the customer to do the same thing they would do if they were to walk up to our counter in the office," Purcell said. "This will certainly save us a lot of money, and it will certainly save the environment with people not having to drive downtown."

The machine cost $7,000 and was paid for through the office's surcharges.

As the county has grown, so too, has the volume of public documents that move through the county Recorder's Office, officials said. The office records more than 1 million documents, such as title documents, liens and other public records, a year.

Officials have worked on the project for about a decade, Purcell said, when officials "realized we weren't going to have recording facilities throughout the county" because of budget restraints. The county started to record documents electronically in 1999, the same year officials began to plan the kiosk concept.