Arkansas: Counties scramble to make changes to voter ID materials before election | KATV

The law requiring Arkansans to show their photo identification at the polls in order to vote, is no longer law following Wednesday’s state supreme court ruling. But as early voting begins on Monday, counties are scrambling to make last minute changes, redoing things they’ve already done in order to get the proper information to polling sites. Workers at the Saline County Clerk’s office say they’ll work into the night packing boxes full of supplies for polling sites. But, because of the voter ID law being struck down, they’re having to take some items out of the box, like signs asking voters to show their identification. “The early voting sites, we’re going to have to change all of those. all of the signage we spent money on, taxpayer money on, all of those are going to have to be pulled out of the thing that’s going to be sent out. those will no longer be in place,” said Saline County Clerk Doug Curtis.

California: Public database of county by county elections costs in the works for California | California Forward

Dwindling turnout at the polls demonstrates a clear need for additional electoral reforms aimed at increasing California’s chronically low voter participation rate. Identifying which policies deliver the biggest bang for the buck is the hard part. But it’s about to get a lot easier. The California Association of Clerks and Election Officials (CACEO) is building a public online database of elections costs to better inform policies and procedures and to identify and share best practices with a grant awarded from the James Irvine Foundation. This is a big deal! Here’s why. A slew of election reforms are proposed each year. When reviewing a measure, one of the first things legislators want to know is: What’s the cost? “We’ve never been able to answer that question statewide,” said Neal Kelley, Orange County Registrar of Voters and CACEO President. “Now we’re going to be at that point where we can, and I think it’s really important to be able to be part of the discussion when it comes to new legislation.” For years, Doug Chapin, Director of the Future of California Elections, has referred to election costs as the “big white whale” of election administration. California’s diversity and sheer size has hindered any quest to capture the elusive and valuable data.

Arizona: $15,000 cost for one ballot | Tucson News Now

The recent primary election chalked up a first: An unheard of cost. Every ballot cast because of the new bifurcated voting system cost taxpayers $14,867. State law says a voter can’t vote in state elections until or unless they can prove they are a United States citizen. The federal registration form does not require proof of citizenship. It asks only that the person swear upon penalty of perjury that they are indeed a US citizen. For the feds, that’s enough. For the state, it’s not. However, the federal courts have ruled that the voters who use the federal form will be allowed to vote for federal offices even if they are barred from voting for state and local officials.  So during the primary election, Pima County elections officials had to print separate ballots for those who used the federal form to register. That turned out to be for five different parties, even if there were no candidates for a federal office.

Illinois: $50,000 to fix Winnebago County ballot error | Associated Press

A forest preserve district race has been omitted from thousands of ballots in Winnebago County, forcing election officials to spend $50,000 to fix the problem. The Winnebago County Clerk’s office didn’t include the Forest Preserves of Winnebago County race on the official certification of candidates sent to the Rockford Board of Elections before ballots were printed, the Rockford Register Star reported. A voter on Thursday noticed the missing race, which has three candidates running for two open board positions.

Massachusetts: From staffing to voting machines, election costs add up for cities and towns | The Patriot Ledger

A glance at any campaign finance report reveals the role money plays in state elections, as candidates, private donors and independent interest groups use cash to try to sway voters. But behind the scenes, Massachusetts cities and towns also funnel thousands of dollars into elections – as the price tags to prepare voting machines, staff polling locations and advertise big changes to election routines add up. The cost varies largely depending on the size of the community and how many precincts it has. Scituate Town Clerk Kathy Curran said a typical state election costs about $9,000. The town hires about 34 workers for its six precincts.There is one polling location for all 14,000 residents who are registered to vote. In Quincy, the same state election costs up to $80,000, City Clerk Joseph Shea said. The city operates more than two dozen polling locations for its 30 precincts, requiring about 200 election workers. The city has nearly 64,000 registered voters. “In a city election, we’re on our own, but in a state election, the state does step up to reimburse some of it,” Shea said. “The amount we get back changes from year to year.”

Florida: State’s write-in glitch costs Brevard County $13,000 to fix | Florida Today

A communications breakdown between state and county elections officials looks like it will cost more than $13,000 in unanticipated expenses that will be picked up by Brevard County Supervisor of Elections Lori Scott out of her taxpayer-funded budget. The glitch was the result of Kourtney Ann Waldron, a write-in candidate for Florida House in District 53, dropping out of the race last month. Waldron on Sept. 11 notified the Florida Department of State’s Division of Elections of her decision to withdraw. But the state did not pass the information on to Scott’s office before ballots were printed a week later. So the local ballots, including absentee ballots, included a line for a write-in candidate in the District 53 race. Scott — who said she found out on Sept. 29 about Waldron’s withdrawal from a voter — decided she needs to inform voters that there no longer is a write-in candidate in the race.

Ohio: $760,920 sought to replace poll books in Lucas County | Toledo Blade

Anyone who votes in Lucas County knows that there’s a limit to how far the computer revolution has invaded the election process. At each of the approximately 350 precinct locations, poll workers flip through paper binders to locate a voter’s name, and then the voter signs his or her name in that book. After the election, those binders then go back to the Lucas County Board of Elections office to be audited, page by page, to verify who voted and who didn’t. While that time-honored process is not going to change in time for the Nov. 4 election, the Lucas County Board of Elections would like to replace the old paper and pen method with computerized tablets at least in time for the 2016 presidential election.

District of Columbia: Elections Board Says All Voting Machines Need To Be Replaced | WAMU

The D.C. Board of Elections says that the city’s voting machines are outdated and in need of replacement, an admission that comes only weeks before what could be a close mayoral election. In a report on the Apr. 1 primary published last week, the board said that a majority of the city’s touch-screen and optical scanner voting machines are outdated, exceeding the recommended 10 years of use. As such, they will be difficult to maintain for future elections. “The District of Columbia’s mechanical and digital voting and tabulation system… is in need of replacement,” says the report. “The BOE’s voting systems are over a decade old and are reaching the end of their operational life.” In the report, which was supposed to have been published in July but was delayed by three months, the board says that a large number of the city’s voting machines are refurbished units purchased “at a steep discount” in 2009. Given that they were in use before being purchased by D.C., the report says that the machines are older than what a federal election assistance commission recommends for use by local jurisdictions.

Canada: Tories refuse to reveal cost for splitting up Elections Canada | CBC

The Harper government is refusing to disclose how much it will cost taxpayers to separate the commissioner of elections from Elections Canada — a move Conservatives insisted upon even though electoral experts said it was unnecessary. The government says all briefing materials on the cost and logistics of transferring the election commissioner’s operations to the director of public prosecutions are cabinet confidences. As such, they can’t be released in response to an access-to-information request. Moving the election commissioner under the auspices of the public prosecutor was a key measure in a controversial overhaul of election laws pushed through Parliament by the Conservatives last spring despite near-universal condemnation by electoral experts at home and abroad. Democratic Reform Minister Pierre Poilievre insisted the move was necessary to ensure the commissioner’s independence from the chief electoral officer, who Conservatives contend is biased against their party.

National: Voter ID Laws: Research shows they impose costs, discourage voting | New Republic

One federal judge has allowed a voter ID law to take effect in Wisconsin. Another is now contemplating whether to do the same in Texas. Defenders of these laws, which exist in some form in 34 states, insist that requiring people to show government-issued identification at the polls will reduce fraud—and that it will do so without imposing unfair burdens or discouraging people from voting. In North Carolina, for example, Republican Governor Pat McCrory wrote an op-ed boasting that the measures fight fraud “at no cost” to voters. It’s not surprising that McCrory and like-minded conservatives make such arguments. The Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts has steadily weakened the Voting Rights Act and related legislation, which for generations federal official used to make sure minority voters had equal voice in the political process. But in 2008, when the Court approved Voter ID laws, the Court left open the possibility of new challenges if plaintiffs can demonstrate the laws impose a burden on would-be voters. There are now good reasons to think the laws do exactly that.

Wisconsin: Elections agency asks for nearly half a million dollars for voter ID | Wisconsin State Journal

Saying “there is very little time left to reach out to the public,” the head of the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board announced Tuesday that he is asking the Legislature for nearly half a million dollars for a statewide campaign to notify voters that they must present a photo identification to vote Nov. 4. Kevin Kennedy, director of the state’s elections agency, said the money is needed to alert voters to the voter ID law, which a federal appeals court reinstated on Sept. 12.

New Jersey: Judge to decide who will pay for special election | Cape May Gazette News

Cape May County counsel Jim Arsenault said he filed an action Sept. 19 to have a judge decide who will pay for the Dec. 9 special election on whether to dissolve the Lower Cape May Regional School District.  County Clerk Rita Fulginiti informed Cape May it would have to bear the cost of the special election because they asked for the referendum. Cape May appealed to the county counsel, who has sought a determination from Super Court. The state Department of Education announced that a special election on the dissolution of the Lower Cape May Regional School District would be held Dec. 9 for Cape May, West Cape May, and Lower Township. Cape May requested a referendum on keeping or dissolving the LCMR school district as part of an effort to lower school taxes for Cape May property owners. Cape May property taxes fund 35 percent of the district’s budget, while sending just 5 percent of the students.

Missouri: Ballot reprinting to cost the state | Nodaway News

Recently, Nodaway County and the rest of the counties in Missouri were notified of changes to ballot language of the Amendment 6 question and also the possible challenge to Amendment 3. Election services were completed except for shipping the ballots for election day. That meant all absentee ballots and regular ballots had been printed and all electronic testing had been completed. All federal and state deadlines had been met to produce ballots for the military deadline of September 19 as well as regular absentee voting of September 23. Ballot challenges in the court system were not complete. Unfortunately, the challenge to Amendment 6 was approved which altered the original ballot language for that issue. Therefore, all election products must be destroyed and the process started over.

Wisconsin: State has no budget for voter ID, agencies say | Journal Times

Three state agencies charged with implementing voter ID for the Nov. 4 election say they have no additional money set aside to help voters and state workers comply with the newly reinstated requirement. But municipal clerks in Wisconsin’s two largest cities say they will spend thousands of dollars and hire hundreds of poll workers in the next few weeks to ensure that voters have the proper government-issued photo identification when casting their ballots. Spokesmen for the three state agencies — the Government Accountability Board, the Division of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Health Services — all say they are using existing staff and resources to handle the demand. In addition, the accountability board says it has no money for a public information or outreach campaign to ensure voters are aware of the requirement. GAB spokesman Reid Magney said the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee has asked the agency to develop a budget request by Sept. 30, which it will consider at its quarterly meeting sometime after that.

Missouri: Court ruling causes reprinting of Missouri ballots | Associated Press

Missouri election officials are scrambling to reprint ballots and reprogram computers after an appeals court ordered a change to an early voting proposal that will appear on the November ballot. County clerks said Wednesday that the change could cost the state tens of thousands of additional dollars and delay the availability of absentee ballots that are supposed to ready for voters next Tuesday. It also could lead to a push during the 2015 legislative session to amend Missouri’s election deadlines. “It is a tremendous burden on the local taxpayers — on the entire state of Missouri — when these types of rulings are handed down at this late notice,” said Atchison County Clerk Susette Taylor, who is president of the Missouri Association of County Clerks and Election Authorities. A panel of the Western District state appeals court on Monday ordered new ballot wording for a proposed constitutional amendment authorizing a six-day, no-excuses-needed early voting period for future general elections. The judges said the ballot summary approved by legislators was misleading because it failed to note the early voting period would occur only if the state provides funding. Many local election authorities already had printed their paper ballots and programmed their computers based on the list of candidates and issues that were certified last month.

Missouri: Late ballot change costs taxpayers | Lebanon Daily Record

A ballot language change ordered by a state appeals court Monday could cost some Missouri counties thousands of dollars as now they must scramble to reprint the ballots for the November election. Laclede County Clerk Glenda Mott said Tuesday she received the ballots for local voters on Friday. This coming Friday, she was planning to send out the ballots for military members overseas as required by federal law. On Tuesday — six weeks before the November election — she has to have absentee ballots available for voters, according to Missouri statutes. The Missouri Western District Court of Appeals Monday reversed an Aug. 25 decision of Cole County Circuit Court Judge Jon E. Beetem, who had deemed the ballot language for Amendment 6 sufficient.

Wisconsin: State covers touch-screen voting machine costs | The Journal Times

The state will reimburse Racine County municipalities about $42,000 for costs related to touch-screen voting machines. The Racine County Board unanimously approved a resolution authorizing the reimbursement in its meeting Tuesday. The money will extend maintenance agreements on the machines by three years and four months, County Clerk Wendy Christensen said. The county will apply for the reimbursement and then distribute the money to each of the 17 municipalities, Christensen said.

Arizona: Pima County to do away with precinct scanners | The Explorer

Pima County will no longer make use of precinct scanners at polling locations after the Pima County Board of Supervisors rejected a measure to spend $1.8 million to replace them. The board’s decision came despite a recommendation by Pima County Election Integrity Commission (PCEIC) to keep the scanners in place since they allow for an electronic count at polling locations, serving as a way to double check ballots when they are tallied in the central count system. Bill Beard, District 1 PCEIC representative called the board’s decision frustrating, particularly since he says Pima County has a poor track record with handling elections in the past. “If the board is truly concerned about the matter, perhaps actually listening to the advisers they appointed to advise them on thing elections-related might be a good place to start,” he said, also noting that District 1’s Ally Miller was the only supervisor to vote in favor of the PCEIC’s recommendation to keep scanners in place.

Australia: Politicians billing taxpayers twice for election campaign material | The Guardian

Federal MPs and senators are passing on the cost of printing election-related material to the taxpayer in a practice once described as “double dipping” by the auditor general’s office. A Guardian Australia analysis of politicians’ entitlements shows that on average claims for printing and communications materials during an election campaign are twice as high as at other times. Funds are provided separately to parties for election campaigns via the Australian Electoral Commission, so using regular entitlements for campaign material may represent a double use of taxpayers’ funds that benefits incumbent politicians.

Japan: Electronic voting hindered by breakdowns, cost | The Japan News

Electronic voting has failed to be widely adopted by municipalities in Japan, reflecting concern over voting device breakdowns and high costs for system development and maintenance. Only three municipalities—Kyoto; Niimi, Okayama Prefecture; and Rokunohe, Aomori Prefecture—are carrying out electronic voting based on ordinances. There is little momentum for expanding the use of electronic voting to national elections. The law for electronic voting was put into force in February 2002 with the aim of speeding up vote counting. Voters cast ballots by operating touch screens and other electronic devices at polling stations.

South Dakota: High-speed ballot-counting machines to Minnehaha coming for fall election | Argus Leader

Minnehaha County election workers will be able to count ballots faster this fall. Commissioners approved the purchase of two high-speed ballot-counting machines Tuesday, using $217,625 from the Help America Vote Act. The new machines can count 300 ballots a minute, more than twice as many as the four old machines that are being replaced. The new tabulators will used for this fall’s general election. Auditor Bob Litz said that will make results available more quickly on election night. Even as the county population grows, he said they’ll be able to keep up with ballot counting “and still not break a sweat.”

North Carolina: Registrars plan to replace voting equipment before it fails | Roanoke Times

Thou shall not be like Florida in 2000. To keep that commandment, state lawmakers want localities to purchase voting machines that leave a paper trail. However without state funds to back up the directive, local registrars must figure out how long they can chance using the old touch-screen machines while they find money to afford new ones. Botetourt County Registrar Phyllis Booze worries touch-screen voting equipment purchased following the Bush v. Gore debacle might not hold up to the demand of heavy voter turnout expected for the 2016 presidential contest. Under state law, she can’t buy replacements for broken or worn machines and she needs hundreds of thousands of local dollars to switch to paper-based optical scanners.

Arizona: Peoria council candidate left off ballot — again | The Arizona Republic

Peoria City Council candidate Ken Krieger’s name was not on ballots sent out last week to more than 8,500 residents. County officials scrambled to fix their error by mailing out replacement ballots this week, but his name once again was left off. “All I wanted to be was on the ballot,” Krieger said. “I understand that mistakes can be made but when it happens twice, it’s just trampling on a person’s constitutional rights.” The repeated omission has forced Peoria officials to call an emergency City Council meeting today so council members can decide what to do next, Deputy City Clerk Linda Blas said. What that decision could be is unclear. “They’re still discussing (options),” Blas said. “The council will make the decision on what instructions they would like to give to (the) county.” Maricopa County Elections Department Director Karen Osborne said the city has various options, including a third attempt to send out the correct ballot or canceling this month’s primary election for the council district and holding it with the general election Nov. 4.

California: Legislation would require automatic recounts in very close statewide finishes | The Sacramento Bee

California taxpayers would pick up the tab for recounts in close statewide elections under soon-to-be-amended legislation that follows criticism of existing state rules during last month’s recount in the controller’s race. Assembly Bill 2194 by Assemblyman Kevin Mullin, D-San Mateo, would require the state to cover the cost of recounts in any statewide contest where the margin is one-tenth of 1 percent or less. Under current law, any voter can request a recount in particular areas as long as they pay for it. If the recount changes the outcome, another voter can request a recount in other places.

Guam: Election Commission receives new voting tabulators | Pacific Daily News

The Guam Election Commission has new voting tabulators and is gearing up for the Aug. 30 Primary Election. GEC Executive Director Maria Pangelinan said the three tabulators arrived Aug. 1 and the staff started training on Monday. The Legislature in June appropriated $134,250 to buy a new ballot tabulation system and $48,500 for ballot stock and coding services. The four tabulators the election commission had were old and outdated and caused some problems during the last election in 2012.

Illinois: Peoria County voters may decide election commission consolidations | Journal Star

Next to a host of constitutional amendments and advisory questions, Peoria County voters may face at least two more referendum questions in the Nov. 4 election. The County Board’s executive committee agreed Thursday to ask the full board to approve on Aug. 14 letting citizens decide whether to consolidate the City Election Commission and the county election operations now under the county clerk into a new countywide election commission. The full board also will weigh consolidating the offices of clerk and recorder of deeds. Bringing together the two election entities has long been a priority for the county, and board members have asked legislators for a measure making it easier to do — requiring just one referendum with easy wording rather than two votes with more complex ballot language — since at least 2009, board member Allen Mayer said. “We’ve voted on this again and again and again,” he said of the board’s repeated efforts to get lawmakers to advance a bill, something that was finally done in 2013.

New Mexico: Ballot overflow may be problem | Albuquerque Journal

Voters in Bernalillo County can expect an incredibly crowded ballot this fall – so crowded, in fact, that election workers are struggling to find room for municipal questions. The city of Albuquerque holds its own regular elections in odd-numbered years, though city councilors occasionally ask the county to add a city item or two to county ballots in even-numbered years. This year, however, the city might seek space for four or more questions on the November ballot, including proposals to change how the police chief is hired and to reduce marijuana penalties. But the ballot is already stuffed with federal and state races, plus retention elections for state and metropolitan judges.

Iowa: Price tag for statewide run-off election? At least $500,000 | Radio Iowa

The potential price tag doesn’t seem to be a deterrent to the idea of holding run-off elections in Iowa to choose party nominees if the winner isn’t chosen during primary voting. Under current Iowa law, if no candidate in a Primary Election gets at least 35 percent of the vote, party delegates at a convention choose their nominee for the November ballot. Representative Guy Vander Linden, a Republican from Oskaloosa, sponsored a bill last session that would have shifted to a run-off election instead. “I didn’t like the idea of having just a very few people make the final decision and end up with a situation where they picked somebody who wasn’t even close,” says Vander Linden, who is chairman of the House State Government Committee.

Alabama: State spends $3 million on runoff | Gadsden Times

Alabama taxpayers will spend $3 million on a runoff election Tuesday that most citizens will skip. Alabama’s chief election official, Secretary of State Jim Bennett, said he expects about 5 percent of Alabama’ 2.85 million active voters to participate because of a lack of races that draw voters. “You have no extremely high profile elections,” Bennett said. His forecast is less than one-fourth of the 22 percent who turned out in the primary June 3. No party has a runoff for governor or U.S. Senate. The Republican Party has runoffs for secretary of state, state auditor and Public Service Commission Place 2, the 6th Congressional District, and six legislative seats. The Democratic runoff has no statewide races, no congressional contests, and only one legislative runoff. Only 20 of Alabama’s 67 counties have a Democratic runoff Tuesday.

District of Columbia: The Little-Known Election That’s About to Cost the District $300,000 | Washington City Paper

Are you pumped for election day this Tuesday? LL’s not talking about the mayoral primary—that was in April. Or the general election, which is still four months from now. Instead, District voters will go to the polls next week to cast ballots for a special election for Ward 8’s seat on the State Board of Education. A special election to fill a position on the toothless State Board of Education isn’t anyone’s idea of a hot race. But even if District residents aren’t paying attention to it, they are paying for it. Holding the election will cost roughly $300,000, according to D.C. Board of Elections spokeswoman Tamara Watkins. That might seem steep, but according to a draft budget prepared by the DCBOE, even running a small election costs a lot of money. Printing fees are expected to cost around $38,500, while voting systems cost $37,000. $43,730 will go to payments to poll staff, including $28,200 just for election day work.