Wisconsin: Senate poised to pass Wisconsin voter ID bill | weau.com

The state Senate is set to finally pass a bill that would require Wisconsinvoters to show photo identification at the polls. Republicans who control the chamber hoped to pass the bill on Tuesday. But Democrats railed against the plan for nine hours before ultimately using a procedural move to delay the vote until Thursday.

Republicans have been working for years to pass the plan, saying it’s needed to fight voter fraud. Democrats maintain serious voter fraud doesn’t exist and Republicans actually want to disenfranchise pro-Democrat groups. Former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle vetoed the bill three times between 2002 and 2005.

North Carolina: State Senate eyes NC voter ID bill – $3.1 million estimate | Burlington Times News

A Senate panel on Tuesday took a look at a bill that would require North Carolina voters to show a photo ID when they go to the polls to cast their ballots.

“I think it does ensure integrity in our elections process,” Sen. Debbie Clary, R-Cleveland, told a Senate Judiciary Committee. “It ensures that you are who you say you are when you come to vote.” Clary said the bill mirrors a Georgia voter ID law. … Clary said she did not have complete information on how much it would cost the state to implement such a program. She said preliminary cost estimates were around $3.1 million.

Florida: Election sticker shock in Pembroke Pines Florida | Sun Sentinel

Pembroke Pines Commissioner Angelo Castillo wants to cut the cost of elections in the city and Broward County. This is in spite of the fact that his position as a city commissioner doesn’t impart him with much authority to change the way elections are run.

The Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes runs the elections, but Pembroke Pines pays. That rankles Castillo.

Wisconsin: Taxpayers picking up over $230,000 cost of Wisconsin Supreme Court recount | Chippewa Herald

Wisconsin taxpayers so far are on the hook for more than a quarter-million dollars in the recount of votes in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. The statewide recount of ballots in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race will cost the state at least $230,000, according to updated financial data gathered by Wisconsin Reporter.

As of Friday, initial recount cost estimates from 57 of the state’s 72 counties totaled $233,539, county officials said. That’s less than half of the Government Accountability Board’s initial estimate of $500,000, though figures from several of the state’s larger counties, including Milwaukee and Ozaukee, were unavailable.

Louisiana: Louisiana explores special election process in effort to cut costs | DailyComet.com

Lawmakers are zeroing in on ways to cut the cost to taxpayers for holding elections. Recent months have seen a long string of special elections, even locally.

With term limits taking effect, state senators are abandoning ship for statewide posts and new public jobs. Representatives are stepping up to become senators, and their vacancies are prompting promotions for parish councilmen and mayors across Louisiana.

Connecticut: Connecticut Senate Approves Election Reform Bill | Courant.com

Responding to last November’s highly publicized Election Day problems in municipalities including Bridgeport, where a shortage of paper ballots contributed to a days-long delay in the declaration of a new governor, the Senate has approved a bill establishing standards to ensure local registrars buy enough ballots. The 34-0 vote Thursday sent the bill to the House for action in coming weeks.

The bill says local voter registrars must certify to the secretary of the state that they have ordered enough ballots for each polling place. They also would need to show that they have considered all relevant factors in determining how many they need. Unless registrars clear their plans with the secretary of the state, they would have to order one ballot for each registered voter.

Pennsylvania: Taxpayers will cover costs of IDs under proposed Pennsylvania voting law | dailylocal.com

An effort to fight voting fraud could cost state taxpayers millions, though it’s a price some lawmakers are willing to pay. New requirements intended to cut down on fraudulent voters were passed by the House State Government Committee on Monday morning and will head to the House for a final vote. The bill would require voters to show official photo identification each time they go to their polling place to cast a ballot. Voters now have to provide identification only the first time they vote at a specific polling place.

The new requirement would not take effect until the primary elections in the spring of 2012, unless there is a special election scheduled for earlier in 2012.

California: Voting change could be costly locally | Chico Enterprise Record

Though Measure A proponents claim moving the Chico City Council elections from November to June would not cost taxpayers more money, the Registrar of Voters Office says different. A June 2012 ballot could cost Chico $130,000 versus a November election price tag of $57,000, according to a Butte County Registrar of Voters estimate. The city could pay about $73,000 more per council election, which occur every two years.

Because the city would be sharing the June election with just the county rather than about 17 jurisdictions who appeared in the November 2010 ballot, the election would likely cost more, said Laurie Cassady, assistant county registrar of voters. Measure A supporters had enough signatures to put the initiative on the June 7 special municipal election ballot. During a debate last week, proponents said the election month change would not cost more money.

Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe too broke to organise elections this year | Daily Nation

Zimbabwe's Finance Minister Tendai Biti addresses a news conference at the party's headquarters in Harare May 6, 2009. He has said Zimbabwe does not have the $400 million needed to organise elections this year  Photo/FILE

Zimbabwe's Finance Minister Tendai Biti

Zimbabwe does not have the $400 million needed to organise elections this year, Finance minister Tendai Biti has said. Mr Biti said the coalition government also faces a $150 million deficit this year because it had missed all revenue targets with almost half the year gone.

The government has set a revenue target of $2.7 billion this year, but the economy has performed poorly due to the unstable political environment. President Robert Mugabe says he wants an early election because he has failed to work with his rivals in a coalition government formed in 2009 following his disputed re-election a year earlier.

Tennessee: GOP moves to repeal Tennessee paper ballot law | The Tennessean

A plan to require paper ballots in next year’s elections is on the verge of being repealed, the latest in a series of actions taken by Republicans in the state legislature to rewrite Tennessee election laws.

State representatives are trying to reverse most of a 2008 law that called for the replacement of electronic voting machines across the state with paper ballots read by computerized scanners. The move would kill off a plan that supporters say would create a verifiable record of votes but opponents say will be costly and open to tampering.

Maryland: $3.41M Settlement with Premier Election Solutions Over Voting Machine Security Issues | Southern Maryland Headline News

Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler on Wednesday announced the settlement of a claim against Premier Elections Solutions, formerly known as Diebold. The settlement, negotiated by the Office of Attorney General, will be worth more than $3 million to the State.

In 2008, the Attorney General, on behalf of the State Board of Elections, brought a claim against Diebold to recoup costs that the State incurred to remedy security issues that had arisen with the Diebold machines.

Colorado: Are Denver’s elections costing too much? | KWGN

Four candidates are running for Clerk & Recorder in Denver, and one of them, Jacob Werther, is claiming the all-mail ballot election is costing the City too much. “I’m thinking about four dollars a ballot,” said Werther.  “When you factor in the paper and the labor involved in handling 290-thousand ballots it’s about 1.2 million dollars.”

He says if the city would go to a full Ballot on-demand system, where ballots are printed out when voters show up at the polls, this election could have come in for about $600,000 and that includes 60 polling places with eight judges at each location.

Tennessee: Sumner County leaders oppose possible paper ballot mandate in Tennessee | The Tennessean | tennessean.com

Members of the Sumner County Commission recently voted to send a proposal to state legislators to either repeal or fund a bill currently being considered that mandates the use of paper ballots in local elections.

“We just purchased new machines that are electronic, and if they mandate paper ballots we’ll have to go to a new system,” County Executive Anthony Holt said. “It could be in the range of $300,000 to buy the new required scanning machines and have them stored. That’s going to be a huge fiscal impact.”

Editorials: Jepthah Gathaka  | The management of five elections in one wi……ll be an impossible undertaking in Kenya | Daily Nation

The new Constitution provides that the election of President, MPs and the Senate, the county governor and the county ward representatives be held ‘‘on the second Tuesday in August in every fifth year’’. The management of five elections in one General Election in one day will be a Herculean task for the proposed Independent Elections and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

This will be against the spirit of the Constitution as provided for in Article 86, for it will be a recipe for chaos. It will be very difficult for voters to cast ballots in five boxes in one session. Even in the so-called developed democracies, managing and participating in five elections is quite difficult.

Wisconsin: State Supreme Court election recount could be costly | Leader-Telegram

It’s going to cost Wisconsin’s taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars to more than $1 million to find out who will be the next state Supreme Court justice. Assistant attorney general JoAnne Kloppenburg on Wednesday said she will seek a full, statewide recount of the April 5 election in which she is challenging Justice David Prosser for a 10-year term on the bench.

“There are two reasons for this recount,” she said. “One is to verify the outcome. The other is to restore the public trust in the electoral process.”

Based on the canvassed vote totals from all 72 Wisconsin counties, Prosser is winning by 7,316 votes, from about 1.5 million cast.

National: Voters’ guides go digital…sometimes | Electionline Weekly

Across the nation, elections offices are moving further and further away from a paper society and allowing residents to do everything electronically, whether it’s registering to vote, requesting an absentee ballot, or in some recent experiments, even voting online. One stronghold remains though: the printed and mailed voters’ guide.

Moving to online-only voter guides is seen by many as the obvious response to budget cuts for an electorate living with 21stcentury technologies. Printed voter guides are a tradition that voters across the nation have come to expect in the weeks leading up to an election, yet they are costly to compile, print, and mail, and their information is often duplicated online at lower costs.

Illinois: Your vote cost about $10 in Rockford and Winnebago County Illinois | rrstar.com

A single vote Tuesday cost taxpayers about $10 in Rockford and Winnebago County. That’s roughly the price of a movie ticket and, thanks to low voter turnout, substantially higher than the cost per vote of previous elections dating back to at least 1987.

Election costs include judges’ pay, polling place rental, truck rental, equipment, publications, support service and other miscellaneous expenses. “No matter what the turnout, good, bad or otherwise, we still have the expense to pay for all the extras that go along with the election,” said Winnebago County Clerk Margie Mullins.