With two months to go until the November election, some analysts are anxious to see whether more, or less, people will head to the polls due to the unique nature of this year’s presidential candidates.
Butler County Election Director Shari Brewer said she expects voter turnout to be up.
During the 2012 campaign, Brewer said her office received just over 7,200 new voter registrations. As of last week, a little over 6,000 new registrations had already been processed. With one month to go until the Oct. 8 voter registration deadline, Brewer predicts her office will meet, if not pass, the 2012 numbers. For information on how to register to vote, visit here.
Everyone who is registered to vote, however, does not actually show up to vote. With that said, the county must plan for 100 percent voter turnout, meaning when someone who is registered to vote does not cast a ballot, the county is essentially throwing money away.
“It makes the price per vote cast go up high,” Brewer said in an interview.
The county currently owns 506 touch screen voting machines, which cost about $70,000 per year to maintain. The machines were purchased with federal grant money 11 years ago and will likely need to be replaced in three to four years. When the replacements come due, the county will have to foot the bill this time- at the tune of several million dollars.
“To replace our current system would cost roughly $5,000 per machine,” Brewer said. “We have 500 machines.”
The high cost – and inefficiency- of elections is causing officials in many counties- including Brewer in Butler- to learn more about other ways elections could be run that are more cost-effective.
We’ll dive into that topic on Thursday as our ‘It’s Your Vote’ series continues.
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