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State election requirements cost plenty for area |
Published on April 4, 2006
Frederick, News-Post
By Liam Farrell
News-Post Staff
FREDERICK -- Elections can cost candidates an enormous amount of money,
but this fall's gubernatorial and county ballots are set to empty the
pockets of someone else: the county government.The Frederick County Board of Elections sent a budget appeal of more
than $422,000, fueled mainly by new state requirements, to the county
commissioners Monday.
The request was part of this week's bidding for the $4.6 million in
one-time money left for fiscal 2007. Recurring expenses can only be
taken on if the board revises its $427.4 million proposed operating
budget, which came in with a potential $7.1 million deficit.
On March 29, the Maryland House of Delegates and the Senate passed a
bill establishing procedures for early voting. This fall, Frederick
County will need a single location open on Tuesday through Saturday
before election day from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Although costs are still unclear, Stuart Harvey, the election director,
estimates early voting will take an additional $100,000, with other
expenses such as voting equipment and personnel raising the total even
higher.
"It may not be the easiest thing in the world to hire people for five
days straight working 14 hours a day," Mr. Harvey said. "We just really
have no idea what we're going to be up against in terms of early voting.
In addition, another bill passed by the House and currently before the
Senate could require the county to switch from its existing Diebold
electronic voting machines to an optical scan system for 2006 or an
all-mail system by 2008 in order to keep a paper trail for elections.
"Our postage costs and printing costs would be exorbitant (for an
all-mail system)," Mr. Harvey said. "We probably won't know É until
next Monday what voting system we'll be using."
Some county commissioners criticized the new requirements.
"This is truly an example of a society that has too much money," Commissioner John Lovell Jr. said.
Commissioner Mike Cady said scrapping the voting machines after using
them in only last year's city election was bad policy, especially
because the county will still be financially liable for the machines.
"We got no return on our investment," Mr. Cady said. "I think that's terrible."
In the Frederick delegation, only Delegate Galen Clagett D-Frederick voted for the early voting legislation.
"I didn't see it as excessive," Mr. Clagett said. "Here's the bottom
line: good government is not very cheap government in getting people
out to vote."
The delegate said that in 1970 he requested a recount after losing a
state election by just six votes, and was told by election board
members they couldn't because tallying the ballots again would cost too
much. Mr. Clagett said the experience showed him the necessity of
spending money on the electoral process, and he does not believe the
costs to local jurisdictions will be unbearabl
Boscov
e.
"We waste a lot more money on less important things," he said.
But the rest of Frederick's House representatives, all Republicans,
voted against the bill. Delegate Don Elliott, who represents Frederick
and Carroll counties, said the bill is rife with the possibilities for
fraud and will unnecessarily burden local authorities.
"We just didn't know how the board of elections would be able to handle
it," Mr. Elliott said. "These new election laws are, in my view,
catastrophic."
State election requirements cost plenty for area
Frederick News Post (subscription) - Frederick,MD,USA
... the House and currently before the Senate could require the county
to switch from its existing Diebold electronic voting machines to an
optical scan system for ..
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