Speaker of the House John Boehner’s sudden resignation could cost Butler County up to $1 million, and the state even more, depending on when the governor schedules the special congressional elections. Jocelyn Bucaro, deputy director of the Butler County Board of Elections, told the county commissioners this week it will cost about $1 million to hold special congressional elections for Boehner’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. The cost would be half that if Ohio Gov. John Kasich schedules one of the elections to coincide with the March 15 presidential primary. Elections would need to be held in each county of Ohio’s 8th Congressional District, which includes Butler, Clark, Darke, Miami and Preble counties, and part of Mercer County.
“The state will be paying for this however the money has to be spent before we get reimbursed,” she said. “We will have some additional money needed to fund, hopefully, only one extra election. We’re hearing it’s possible one of those two extra elections will run concurrent with the presidential primary.”
Commissioner Don Dixon said the county can front the money for the special election using contingency funds or cash carry-over. No other budgets will be adversely impacted, but he said he thinks it’s a shame the taxpayers will have to pay $1 million for a special election.
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