Lewis County elections commissioners seek uniform fees for off-cycle elections

Lindsay Burce, Democratic commissioner for the Lewis County Board of Elections, presented a proposed off-cycle election fee policy to the General Service Committee designed to recover direct costs for elections held outside the regular cycle.

Burce said New York State Election Law §4-136 makes off-cycle elections a direct charge to the requesting entity and that increased federal and state requirements since HAVA have driven up local costs for programming, testing, staffing and security. She outlined the proposed schedule: $750 per machine for programming (with an incremental $250 for additional machines), per-ballot printing charges for the county’s print-on-demand service and line-item charges for consumables and mail ballot processing.

"A clearly laid out policy and fee schedule will help towns, districts, and our office plan our budgets and will protect taxpayers from paying for extra elections," Burce said.

Committee members asked for illustrative totals for small elections. Burce said a recent village election cost roughly $1,500 and that school-election invoices varied—commonly in the $1,200–$1,500 range depending on services used. She and other commissioners stressed municipalities may avoid fees by moving elections to the regular November cycle or by conducting their own elections using their own certified machines.

After questions, the committee moved to forward Draft Resolution 1 (the uniform off-cycle fee schedule) to the full board for action; the motion carried by voice vote.

The committee did not adopt the fee at this meeting; it forwarded the draft resolution to the full board for consideration and a formal vote.