National Republicans said Tuesday that they won’t spend a dime to help elect Rep. Todd Akin to the U.S. Senate. But if they can persuade him to drop out, they might have to pony up some significant cash. The deadline passed Tuesday for Akin to easily and instantly drop out of the Senate race in Missouri. Republicans still have more than a month during which they can prevail upon him to step down, but he would have to seek a court order. But if it goes on for a while, it could get expensive. Missouri state law says that, through Sept. 25, Akin can still remove himself from the ballot by court order, which “shall be freely given.” That’s not a problem, apparently, unless someone has a good reason to object.
But the law also states that he would have to pay for any reprinting of ballots. And that could cost a nice chunk of change. It’s not clear exactly how much, because the printing of ballots is split among 114 counties in the state and we don’t yet know exactly when each county will print its ballots. The price depends on how much it costs to print ballots in each county and whether they print them before Akin would drop out.
Full Article: An Akin exit could cost GOP significant $$$.