Following a busy political season, the last few months have been a break from elections — for most. For the Warren County clerk’s office, the state and federal elections in November were hardly …
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Elections are costly obligation for county
Posted
By Adam Rollins, Record Staff Writer
Following a busy political season, the last few months have been a break from elections — for most.For the Warren County clerk’s office, the state and federal elections in November were hardly over before preparations began for upcoming municipal elections April 4.The clerk’s office could spend more than $35,000 to facilitate the elections this spring.County Clerk Barb Daly said the county pays to print over 22,400 ballots — about one for every registered voter.Printing ballots for last year’s April elections cost more than $18,000, Daly said.The total cost for those elections, including staff, public announcements and transporting equipment, was about $37,000, she added.That’s much less than the November elections, which cost over $55,000, Daly said.Election judges, the people who check in voters and issue instructions, are paid $90 to work the polls and $10 if they attend training the week beforehand, Daly said. Warren County employs 100 election judges, she said.After the candidate filing deadline in January, the clerk’s office began preparing ballot information for each voting precinct in the county. Voters receive one of 25 different ballot types depending on where they live within overlapping government boundaries, school districts and fire protection districts.The Friday after election day, ballots are “canvassed,” a process of verifying the accuracy of voting results.“We manually look at the little ovals that are darkened and make sure that the count comes out to the computerized count,” Daly explained.The county is only required to canvas votes from two voting precincts that the county chooses, she said.In addition to annual election costs, at times new equipment and supplies must be purchased.Warren County purchased 25 new voting machines for $154,000 in 2014. To recoup some of that cost, the county now charges precincts $150 per machine on Election Days, Daly said.The optical scan machines have to be programmed with ballot information each election by their vendor, Elkins-Swyers Co., out of Springfield.Once voting and verification is finished, the machines are stored in the lower level of the county administration building, awaiting the next election.
