Costs for Elections Differ in Ohio, W.Va.
The Intelligencer. Wheeling News-Register. October 6, 2007. By JOSELYN KING

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Conducting elections is costing Ohio counties more than double what it did three years ago, but that is not the case in neighboring West Virginia.

Belmont County’s elections costs have jumped nearly $500,000 annually since 2003.

West Virginia officials, though, report no significant increase in costs for elections since the implementation of the Help America Vote Act in 2005. In 2008, counties in West Virginia will assume the cost of programming their touchscreen voting machines — but the price for the service won’t be $500,000.

It will be closer to $5,000, or less than $10,000 for two elections during a year.

West Virginia’s counties will pay $107 per precinct to program their machines beginning in 2008, based on a five-year contract the state has with the Casto and Harris firm, according to information provided by the West Virginia secretary of state’s office.

In Ohio County, there are 39 voting precincts, bringing the total cost there to $4,187 for each election.

Belmont County officials earlier this year received a contract from Elections Systems and Software — the vendor of their voting machines — to program the machines for a cost of $50,000 annually. Board members declined the contract and instead opted to hire a new employee to oversee all computer concerns in the office at a lower cost.

What are the differences between elections in the two states?

At the state level, Ohio has about 8 million registered voters, and West Virginia 1.3 million.

There are many more elected offices in Ohio. This November, a lengthy ballot to decide township and municipal elections will go before voters across the state, while there will be no general elections in West Virginia.

West Virginia also offers its voters the option of early voting in person at their county courthouse. In Ohio, voters instead have no-excuse absentee voting.

Thousands of absentee ballots are mailed out to Ohio voters at a cost of as much as $4 each.

Belmont County Commissioner Mark Thomas said the price for elections in his county in 2004 — one year prior to HAVA — was $361,928. In 2005, after HAVA was enacted, the cost jumped to $546,679.

The price for elections continued to rise dramatically in 2006, as Belmont County’s elections budget came in at $849,639, according to Thomas.

Costs for 2007 are somewhat less in an off-year election, but they are still considerable. The Belmont County Board of Elections has spent $402,920 for the first three quarters of 2007 and is on track to spend about $500,000 in all, according to Thomas.

He said escalating costs for elections is an issue for most counties in Ohio, noting concerns were expressed by many to Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner during a recent County Commissioners Association of Ohio meeting.

“In the not too distant future, a lot of Ohio counties won’t be able to do this any longer,” Thomas said. “The good news is we’ve been able to cover it.

“But think about where that extra $500,000 could have been spent,” he continued. “County Engineer Fred Bennett would have liked to have had more money for paving roads, and I know the commissioners would have liked to have more money for water and sewer line extensions.”

He added that the commissioners recognize the requirements of the HAVA law and will comply with it.

“But as each year go by, we have to wonder how much more we can absorb to run elections at the expense of other services,” Thomas said.

It isn’t clear what the outcome will be if Ohio’s counties aren’t able to fund elections.

“That will be up to the secretary of state,” he said.

In West Virginia, meanwhile, there has been little outcry from counties pertaining to the cost of elections.

“We believe it has been minimal,” said Sarah Bailey, deputy secretary of state in West Virginia. “It’s not like in Ohio. They did not implement HAVA like we did.”

Ohio County elections officials would not provide information pertaining to the costs of elections, saying they had not yet had a full election year utilizing the new voting machines.

Elections Coordinator Toni Chieffalo said she still believes the numbers to be considerably less than those for Ohio counties. Chieffalo does not expect expenses to double in the coming years.