Special Election Means Special Expenses for Cities, Counties

None by KCPW

(KCPW News) The largest county in Utah expects this November's special election to cost half a million dollars. And that's money Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen didn't plan on spending:

"So we haven't budgeted for a countywide election this year and there's a lot of questions to be answered," says Swensen.

She is counting on state election officials and Governor Jon Huntsman Junior to answer those questions quickly. She says all but three cities in the county will likely contract with her office to run the elections.

Holding a statewide election means opening polling locations in districts without another race on the ballot this November. It means paying dozens of poll workers, and it will likely mean more expense to cities, as well as counties.

State election officials say some costs could be eliminated by not using electronic voting machines, which require technical support from Diebold. But Swensen says that's not an option for Salt Lake County:

"We don't have anothe rvoting system in place in Salt Lake County, so we haven't even considered that," says Swensen. "The only thing we could defer to would be a hand-counted paper ballot and I don't even know how we'd facilitate that. We haven't done that type of election since prior to 1981."

Swensen says the old punchcard systems are no longer available, either.

Governor Huntsman has said he would like cities and counties to foot part of the bill. He chose November because he wanted to put the voucher referendum to the people as soon as possible.

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