Webster County auditor: Election changes coming
School board member terms will become four years
The Messenger. July 16, 2008. By BILL SHEA, Messenger staff writer

New state laws will change some election patterns starting next year, according to Webster County Auditor Carol Messerly.

She said Tuesday evening that beginning Jan. 1, the terms of school board members will become four years long rather than the current three. Because of that change, school board elections will only be held in September of odd-numbered years, she said.

Historically, school board elections have been held every year in Iowa.

Messerly also told members of Well-Informed Webster People that a new law curtails special elections to just four times per year. That means city councils, school boards and county boards of supervisors will have to limit when they schedule such votes.

"I think this helps the public as far as the public being aware of when elections are," Messerly said.

She briefed the citizens advocacy group on a number of voting topics Tuesday at the Light of the City Conference Center, 2175 180th St.

The cost of holding elections was one of those topics. The price of elections, like just about everything else, keeps going up.

According to Messerly, in fiscal year 2005, the county budgeted $49,700 for elections.

Two years later, that figure more than doubled, to $110,700.

Messerly said maintenance contracts for new voting machines required by the federal Help America Vote Act caused much of the increase. Also, poll workers recently got a raise with the increase in the minimum wage to $7.50 per hour.

Based on past trends, Messerly and her staff are expecting lots of voters at the Nov. 4 election when Americans will pick their next president.

There are about 25,300 registered voters in Webster County. In the 2004 presidential election, 18,841 of them voted, according to Messerly.

School elections aren't nearly as popular. Messerly said that during the September 2007 school board vote, just 1,226 people cast ballots.

Contact Bill Shea at (515) 573-2141 or bshea@messengernews.net