Legislative staff has come up with a non-partisan fiscal note on voter identification. On the high end, it shows the cost to the state could be two-and-a-half million dollars. But critics say that’s way under what other states have reported and isn’t close to what the actual cost may be. The fiscal note offers a range of what requiring voters to show identification at the polls could cost. On the low end the cost is almost $850,000, and on the high end, the cost is almost $2.5 million.
There are a lot of unknowns such as what it would cost counties. “What’s shocking about this estimate, it’s full of lines like ‘could not be determined,’ ‘could not be estimated,’ ‘was not included in this estimate,'” said Chris Kromm, Institute for Southern Studies.
Kromm is director of the Institute of Southern Studies. He says the unknowns in the report are a problem, but even more concerning is how much is budgeted for voter education — $500,000.
“It’s absurdly low,” Kromm said. “It’s absolutely ridiculous. You don’t want to cut corners. You want to make sure that voters know what’s happening. That they’re properly educated with TV ads, newspaper ads, mailings to the voters, you need to do it right.”
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