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St. Lawrence County to spend nearly $100,000 on Tuesday elections

Posted 11/6/11

By CRAIG FREILICH St. Lawrence County will spend nearly $100,000 to keep polls open for 15 hours on election day, Nov. 8. But when all the other tasks necessary to stage an election -- dealing with …

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St. Lawrence County to spend nearly $100,000 on Tuesday elections

Posted

By CRAIG FREILICH

St. Lawrence County will spend nearly $100,000 to keep polls open for 15 hours on election day, Nov. 8.

But when all the other tasks necessary to stage an election -- dealing with the machines, preparing ballots, and tabulating votes that come in by mail – the general election costs a lot more.

“A general election takes up most of our budget” which this year is close to $900,000, said Elections Commissioner Tom Nichols. “Pay for 400 inspectors can eat up a lot of money in a hurry.”

On Tuesday, at least $81,600 will spent to pay the 408 elections inspectors who will be at each of the 102 polling places in the county. The total rises to $95,880 if you add in the $35 stipend each inspector gets for annual training.

And next year, the whole process will cost even more, when we will elect a president, members of both houses of Congress and both houses of the state Legislature, in addition to local races, according to county Elections Commissioner Tom Nichols.

For a general election, the inspectors, each trained and certified, are paid $200 each. For primaries, frequently in many fewer polling places, they are paid $120.

“Four people per district,” Nichols said, noting two Democrats and two Republicans staff each district polling place. “Each district has bipartisan teams, by state law.”

Nichols said there are usually a couple of inspectors on standby, if for one reason or another an inspector can’t make it to the assigned polling place.

And some places with historically high turnout – Parishville comes to mind, Nichols said – might have an extra inspector or two posted there.

Monitoring, Tabulating

The job of the inspectors is to ensure the vote goes according to law and voters get any help they need. And they are responsible for reporting the counts to the Canton office for tabulation. “Our job is to make it as efficient and enjoyable as possible,” Nichols said.

“Sometimes people are unhappy with the way things are going” at a polling place, such as a voter expecting to cast a ballot but not being found on the list of registered voters in a district, and it is the duty of the inspector to resolve the problem or officially note the complaint in an affidavit.

“They put in a very long day,” Nichols said. With voting scheduled to take place from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., “they are there at 5 a.m., and stay way past the close of polls, probably past 10 o’clock that night.”

Much More Than Inspectors

The inspectors’ pay and training takes just a fraction of the total expense of an election. There is much more that goes into running one.

“We have to hire people to drop off and pick up the machines,” and there are the expenses associated with storing, maintaining, testing, and setting up the machines.

“One big expense is the ballots themselves,” Nichols said. They will vary from place to place, depending on who is running for local positions, and what local questions or initiatives are to be decided, such as the Village of Potsdam’s dissolution proposition.

(Incidentally, Nichols urges voters to check both sides of the ballot, since there might be more things to check off on the back.)

The ballots have to be drawn up and checked several times during the process, then printed, and checked again. There are absentee ballots, too.

Office Personnel

Meanwhile office personnel are registering voters, double-checking the rolls, answering requests for absentee ballots and other help, and, after Election Day, adding in the ballots that come in by mail and checking the counts.

In 2012, Nichols says he expects to see presidential primaries, perhaps U.S. and state office primaries, “and there’s the potential for county primaries, too,” as county legislators and candidates for other offices will be chosen.

The “cost per vote” can be more expensive in primary elections than in general elections. In some contests, fewer than 100 votes were cast in September, Nichols said. And while inspectors are paid less for primaries, usually only 10 to 15 percent of registered voters turn out, Nichols said.

“If people choose not to turn out and vote, that’s not the Board of Elections’ fault. Everyone has the chance to vote,” he said.

“The bigger concern is that people should take advantage of the right people have died for.”

Elections commissioners caution that whatever results are posted after the polls close Election Night remain unofficial until absentee and military ballots are counted and any voter affidavits on registration issues are resolved.