Auditor proposes modest increases for election workers and flags ballot and voter-registration costs

The county auditor reviewed the elections and records budget lines and proposed two operational adjustments: increase pay for election workers and better centralize/sharing of some recurring vendor costs.

Auditor staff said precinct election workers currently receive $9 per hour and precinct chairs $10 per hour and proposed increasing both by $2 per hour to improve recruitment for the long election-day shifts. "They work 15 hour days," an auditor staffer said; supervisors agreed a $2-an-hour bump was reasonable and directed staff to include that change in the draft budget.

The auditor also questioned some large line items in the draft budget. Ballot printing for the next city-and-school cycle was budgeted at $12,000, which the auditor said appeared high compared with recent years and recommended reducing that line to $5,000 pending verification. The auditor identified a new or larger voter-registration vendor cost (IPAC) with an estimate discussed at roughly $4,500 plus a per-voter fee; staff recommended budgeting about $5,000 for that item.

The auditor suggested consolidating recurring charges — for example, a shared Paper Tiger shredding contract and shared postage machine charges — into a central account so offices could share vendor services and reduce redundant line items.

Why this matters: Election worker pay can affect the county's ability to staff elections; printing and vendor fees are recurring operational costs that should be validated and, where possible, centralized to make budgeting and cost recovery (for school or city special elections) simpler.

Next steps: Supervisors told auditor staff to adjust the draft budget to reflect a $2-per-hour increase for election workers, reduce ballot printing to a more realistic number pending verification, budget about $5,000 for IPAC voter-registration costs, and attempt to centralize shared vendor services where practical.