Clerk warns 26% jump in registered voters will raise election costs; special-election placeholder removed

County elections staff told the board a recent run of voter-registration data showed a roughly 26% increase in registered voters compared with two years ago, and the clerk asked commissioners to budget for higher election costs accordingly.

"We had a 26% increase in registered voters on that same day from 2 years ago," said the county clerk (Edith, S5), who outlined changes to the department's PR (personnel) tabs: the clerk split election staff into two PR tabs (regular employees and temporary election staff), clarified head-judge and regular-judge pay, and moved part-time election staff into a temporary election PR tab. The clerk also said a new statutory hand-count audit requires four additional teams (estimated 16'0 judges) and that the office adjusted estimated support costs downward after reviewing placeholder entries.

On special-election costs, the clerk said a $45,000 placeholder for a possible special election notice (due June 15) could be removed because the ballot question passed in the prior meeting will be included on the regular ballot. "That amount was a placeholder ... I removed it," S5 said, explaining the board can add funds later if a true special election is needed.

What comes next: commissioners asked staff to display corrected PR pages (the clerk said a nearly $500,000 formula error on a PR tab had been fixed and highlighted in blue) and to return with updated numbers before the board finalizes salary and benefit decisions at the next meeting.

The clerk's presentation included concrete estimates for ballots, provisional ballots, poll books and other printing costs tied to the higher registration figures, and commissioners asked that the final PR pages be circulated to reduce confusion before tomorrow's salary votes.