Archive for Sunday, January 25, 2009
Voting proves costly
Colorado counties report increasing election expenses
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Denver — The price tag for the 2008 presidential election in Colorado eclipsed the amount spent in 2004, and in one county, it ran as high as $36.57 per vote.
County clerks disclosed cost figures Friday to emphasize the need to simplify an election process that has become extremely expensive and difficult to administer because of regulations regarding the use of electronic voting machines, audit procedures and giving voters a variety of options to cast ballots.
"Elections have gotten very complex, and federal and state legislation ... keeps driving the cost of elections up," Larimer County Scott Doyle said.
The vast majority of those costs are paid by county taxpayers.
Given the current economic pressures, "I don't know that counties can continue to bear the weight," Doyle said.
The 2002 Help America Vote Act passed by Congress was aimed at improving access to the voting booth and making elections more accurate and secure.
But recent regulations at the federal and state level have caused headaches for local election officials. They must keep chain of custody logs of every voting and counting machine, keep 24-hour cameras in the rooms that hold ballots and machines, and use secure transmission lines for their computer software that count votes.
Newly appointed Secretary of State Bernie Buescher expressed concern Friday to state lawmakers about the ballooning cost of elections. The state reimburses large counties 70 cents per vote cast and small counties 80 cents per vote.
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