Benton County sees lower election costs

 FILE PHOTO JASON IVESTER The Benton County Election Commission is already preparing for next year’s contests.
FILE PHOTO JASON IVESTER The Benton County Election Commission is already preparing for next year’s contests.

BENTONVILLE -- Benton County officials said Wednesday election costs for 2016 will be less than the most recent presidential election in 2012.

The Election Commission endorsed a $197,450 budget request for next year's presidential election cycle. The final budget request is uncertain because some expected printing costs aren't yet known. Those costs could add to or reduce the preliminary total. The commission's budget request deals only with supplies and services, not personnel. Those costs will be set by the comptroller, said Kim Dennison, election coordinator.

Russ Anzalone, commission chairman, said the 2012 election year budget for supplies and services was $218,000.

"We're about $20,000 less than that for 2016," he said.

John Brown Jr., commission member, said changes in how the county handles elections have reduced some costs.

"We've got the program your own ballot software now, rather than having to go to ES&S," Brown said.

Previously, the county had to have ballots created by Election Systems & Software at the company's offices in Nebraska. County election officials now can create the ballots needed. The ability to create ballots also gives the county more flexibility in handling elections, Brown said.

"If we do have to have paper ballots, we'll plan for that in advance," he said. "So our cost ought to be less than it was before."

The commission's budget request is due to be turned in to the comptroller Sept. 11, Dennison said.

Also Wednesday, the commission approved opening two additional off-site early voting locations for the 2016 elections. The county had six off locations in 2014 in addition to the three offices of the Benton County clerk for early voting. Nearly 48 percent of voters in the 2014 general election cast their ballots during the early voting, Anzalone said.

The commission approved having a new early voting site at the Northeast Benton County Fire Department in Garfield. A second site will be in Bella Vista, but the location wasn't set Wednesday.

Early voting helps the county avoid problems on election day, Dennison said.

"Early voting runs so much more smoothly than election day voting," she said. "If we can get 50 or 60 percent of our voters in early voting rather than election day we won't see the complaints we've seen in the past on election day."

NW News on 09/03/2015

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