Rein in election costs

Historically, elections were run by the government closest to the people, namely town and village government with town clerks serving as election coordinators, and town boards vested with budgetary oversight. Then came the Bush vs. Gore voting debacle of 2000. Congress responded with the Help Americans to Vote Act (HAVA), which sought to make voting protocol more uniform and accommodate as many voters as possible, particularly the disabled.

In order to receive federal funding, HAVA forced states including New York to enact their own changes to election procedure including the consolidation of elections at the county level, which took place in Dutchess County more or less beginning in 2006. As the county went about executing the provisions of HAVA and the NYS Election Code, county election expenses multiplied from $874,000 in 2005 to $4.4 million in 2009.

Election costs are significant now — not only because we are in a national recession and have seen county property taxes increase by double-digits the last two years — but particularly because this past December the county Legislature voted to require towns and villages to pay for their annual election costs. The shock and scandal is that unlike the 2000 Florida race, elections in our local communities were more or less smooth and inexpensive. Now, our local governments are being forced to pay for massively increased costs in a tough economy, without many mechanisms for lowering the costs.

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Cost-saving measures do however exist — at all levels. Consider:

• County: Three years ago local elections were run by town clerks. Now town elections are coordinated by two paid coordinators per town (one from each party) for a total county cost of $45,000. NYS Election Law Section 3-401 reads that election coordinators are optional at the county’s “discretion.â€

• Towns: Current Election Law (Section 4-100(3a)) limits district size to 950 active registrants, which is significant because by law each district must be staffed minimally by four election inspectors (Section 3-400). With 240 election districts, Dutchess County has more districts than most other counties.

Towns can elect to consolidate districts to reduce the number of required election inspectors. Further, when the towns redistrict following the 2010 Census, they can choose to cut back on the number of districts.

For example, the town of Amenia currently has 2,319 registrants, meaning it can get by with three districts as opposed to the current four.

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• State: The 2010 elections will inaugurate new machines with the capacity to handle more than the 950 voters that the old lever machines could accommodate. The state should increase election district size that will in turn permit towns to redistrict, with fewer districts translating into fewer expenses per election.

For example, even a slight state increase in district capacity would permit the town of Washington’s 2,947 voters to consolidate from four districts into three.

The above are starter suggestions. Deeper cost-saving measures are needed to reduce the high tax burden caused in part by bloated election costs.

 The right to vote is a fundamental American right, but so also is private property and the right to keep earnings.

 Michael Kelsey is the County Legislator for the towns of Amenia, Washington, Stanford, Pleasant Valley and the village of Millbrook. Write him at KelseyESQ@yahoo.com.