Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

The school board might want to do their homework before tonight to figure out how much a special election will cost. I'm guessing their figures for a special election were based on prior elections, not the new fees.

FALLOUT FROM NEW VOTING MACHINES
Law changes drive up special-elections costs
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Tom Sheehan
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH


School districts and others placing issues on the August ballot can expect to dig deeper into their pockets to pay for those special elections.

The switch this year to electronic voting machines from punch-card balloting and other older systems used for years in Ohio?’s 88 counties could add thousands of dollars to the cost of special elections, according to some county elections officials. Much higher costs for such things as absentee ballots are increasing the price tag for the elections.

Thursday is the filing deadline for the Aug. 8 election. Officials in several central Ohio counties, including Licking, Fairfield and Delaware, are anticipating issues on the August ballots.

Franklin County also expects to have special-election issues. It switched to a new touchscreen system this year as part of a federal mandate to overhaul voting systems. Other electronic voting systems also are in use in Ohio, including optical-scan machines.

Jay Morrow, director of the Licking County Board of Elections, is telling prospective ballot-issue filers that the cost per precinct likely will be about $700, compared with $500 under the old punch-card system.

''We?’re not upping the ante, that?’s just the cost'' of doing business, he said. Absentee ballots cost 45 cents each instead of 15 cents for punchcard ballots.

Pataskala Mayor Steve Butcher said the cost of a special election is one of the considerations the City Council must make when it meets Tuesday to decide whether an income-tax or property-tax levy should go on the August ballot.

The city must replace a 2.5-mill roads levy that expired last year. A 1.5 percent incometax issue to support roads and other municipal operations failed at the polls on May 2.

''It?’s going to cost about $7,000,'' he said of the special election, or about $2,000 more than if punch cards were used.

Janet Brenneman, deputy director of the Delaware County elections board, estimates the city schools will spend about $20,000 for a special election for an operating levy. That would be several thousand dollars more than if punch cards were used.

A 12.9-mill levy lost at the polls earlier this month, and the city school board is to decide Monday whether to seek a special election.

''It?’s definitely going to cost more to have special elections,'' Brenneman said. ''We know that we have delivery costs (for the machines) we didn?’t have before.''

Both Brenneman and Alice Nicolia, director of the Fairfield County elections board, said that a new law requiring elections officials to notify registered voters 60 days in advance that an election is being held will add to the cost of both special elections and regular elections.

The short-term law only covers the August and November elections this year and the presidential-election year in 2008.

What is unclear is whether the cost, including postage, of such mailings can be passed along to those entities that place issues on special-election ballots, they said.

''This is so new. The full impact has not been realized yet,'' Nicolia said.

She estimates that special elections in Fairfield County will run about $1,000 per precinct, up from an average of about $700 in the past.

James Lee, a spokesman for Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, said elections boards had no choice but to purchase new systems because of the federal mandate. The notification requirement approved by state lawmakers, and the issue of who must pay for those mailings, is another matter.

''We are in new ground,'' he said.


tsheehan@dispatch.com

If at 4th you don't succeed.

$35K or $50-55K?

District will try 5 th time for bond
Pickerington board marshals its forces, will pick August or November date with voters
Monday, May 22, 2006
Charlie Roduta
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

When residents asked for more communication, they got it.

When they said a 900-student elementary school was too big, Pickerington schools organized a committee to review the ideal space for students.

The district polled residents, invited them to join committees and asked them to help in the campaign efforts.

Administrators and school-board members said they?’ve tried to satisfy their critics, educate their community and describe the needs of their kids.

It was not enough.

Two weeks ago, about 51 percent of voters rejected the district?’s fourth request to add space at the elementary schools. The $36 million bond issue, similar to those that failed in November and in May 2005, would have paid for two 750-student elementaries, land and building improvements.

Tonight, board members will decide when to try again with voters.

Part of the decision depends on a report from Steed, Hammond and Paul, the architect group designing the two elementaries. Board members want to know whether they can open the new schools by the start of the 2008-09 school year if a bond issue were to pass in August.

If not, board members will have to decide whether to spend $35,000 for a special election in the summer or wait until November.

''We all know what we need to do,'' Superintendent Bob Thiede said. ''The biggest question is, can we put a campaign together in August or can we wait until November? ''

Thiede said the bond issue has been building momentum with voters. On the May ballot, the issue lost by 164 votes, a far cry from the 2,000 votes it lost by in May 2005. Nineteen of 39 Fairfield County precincts passed the bond in May, compared with 12 in November. Of the seven precincts that historically have defeated the issue but passed it in May, three rejected the bond issue by an overwhelming margin in November 2004.

Thiede said the district has been analyzing how the bond issue played out with voters in this election. He hopes to use the information to plan where to concentrate resources and how to get those residents to head to the polls.

About one-third of the estimated 30,000 voters in the Pickerington school district weighed in at the polls in May.

Some residents have said the new facilities at Lakeview Junior High School and Pickerington North High School, both of which opened in 2003, polarized voters outside those areas. Others have said the district?’s older community voted the issue down.

Thiede said there was no one group responsible for the bond?’s most recent defeat.

''You had ?‘no?’ voters that were young with no children, ?‘no?’ voters with children,'' he said. ''It was across the board.''

Board member Lori Sanders said some areas traditionally support tax issues and some don?’t. But there are enough supporters in the district to pass the issue, she said. It is a matter of getting them to the polls.

...

Why the added expense?

Someone help me out here since the reporter didn't try -- why are special elections more expensive because of new gear? Programming expense? Electricity? Failure rates from banging the equipment around? Facilities and staff shouldn't be higher. Where's the cost coming from?