County clerk raises MOU fees for election services, offers training incentive to towns to run their own elections

The Sawyer County clerk reported to the Administrative Committee that she updated memoranda of understanding with towns that rely on the county for election administration, raised service fees and is offering an incentive for towns to obtain election training and administer their own elections.

The clerk said she updated MOUs that for some towns dated back five to six years, changing effective dates to May so they fall more sensibly between election cycles. She said she raised per‑voter fees by $0.25, noting they had previously been $1.25 per voter and were increased to $1.50; the MOU fee was raised from $1.50 to $1.75.

“As a carrot,” the clerk said, she will refund a town’s MOU contract fee if the town gets WestVote training and becomes its own provider this year, because there are no elections left this year and the county would otherwise provide minimal service. She said she hopes larger towns such as Lenroot and Round Lake, which have thousands of voters, will undertake training to reduce county workload.

The clerk also reported steady records requests, mainly from the sheriff’s department, and said IT is assisting with larger requests. She distributed the Department of Justice fee schedule and guidance on records requests to department heads.

Why it matters: the fee changes affect towns that rely on the county for election administration and could shift work and costs to town clerks if they accept training. The change could reduce county workload but increase administrative responsibilities at the town level.

Next steps: the clerk said she and the provider towns are looking at summer training (July or August) to transition more towns to local administration and will continue to assist small towns as needed.