By Andy East
Bartholomew County election officials have received nearly $32,000 in federal aid to cover the larger-than-expected price tag of running this year’s primary and general elections.
Central to the soaring costs of running the elections this year are expenses associated with efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at polling locations and surging demand for absentee-by-mail ballots, including unprecedented amounts of paper, postage, envelopes and personal protective equipment not provided by the state, said Bartholomew County Clerk Jay Phelps.
The end result, Phelps said, was ballooning costs in the primary that swelled to about $102,460 — an estimated $20,000 over budget — which left about $91,039 for the general election. General elections tend to be more costly than primaries due to increased voter turn-out, supplies, staff and advertising.
Local election officials estimate that it will cost $104,000 to conduct the Nov. 3 presidential election.
“The previous year in August is when we normally have budget sessions,” Phelps said. “In August 2019, we had no idea that COVID-19 even existed or that it would hit us the way that it did, so that was not put into our funding. Just the increase in voting by mail, that has been a very expensive cost to the county, and I know we’re not the only ones. It’s been statewide.”
For more on this story, see Sunday’s Republic.
