With a packed ballot, two weeks of early voting and several runoffs, Tampa officials were bracing for a hefty price tag from the recent citywide elections. As it turns out, those costs won’t be as much as expected.
Figures from the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections office indicate the March 1 election cost $747,748, including expenses for early voting and the runoff elections. That’s about $250,000 lower than the original estimates for the election, which Elections spokesman Travis Abercrombie attributed to keeping the staffing costs under control.
“We closely monitored voter turnout at our early vote sites and adjusted our staffing accordingly,” he said. “We also integrated better training procedures to keep our staffing to a minimum while ensuring that voters received excellent service at the polls.”
Ahead of the election, city officials also whittled down the projected costs by requesting fewer ballots, reducing public service announcements and Election Day support by the voting machine company and reducing early voting ahead of the elections by one week, which saved the city’s taxpayers about $4,000 a day.
Full Article: Tampa’s election cost much less than expected | TBO.com.