The number of counties in Missouri was determined in the 19 century by the distance that a resident had to go to the county seat and return in a single day by horse and buggy. The number of polling places in the county also had to be a convenient drive by horse and buggy. Now after more than a century and since the invention of the automobile any talk of cutting back the number of polling places is thought to be a treasonable offense. It is time to recognize that the cost of an election is directly related to the number of polling places.
An election in rural Phelps County Missouri normally requires a great deal of coordination and training of more than one hundred Election Judges with about 23 polling locations. There is also some difficulty for securing handicapped accessible polling places. The larger of election costs are associated with the purchase, maintenance, certification and transporting of expensive handicapped touch screen and regular scanning voting machines. Election costs soared with federal handicap voter mandates requiring computer touch screen voting machines as well as handicap access to the polls. Elderly election judges were unable to supervise the use of the touch screen voting machines and computer specialists (paid the same as elections Judges) are needed at each polling location adding to the cost. Apparently no thought was entertained for reducing the number of polls at the time of the government handicap poll requirements were made. Now the touch screen computers will soon need to be replaced (most computers usable life is not more than five years) Phelps County will need to purchase about 25 of them. The urgency for Election Reform comes from the fact that Phelps County as well as most other Missouri counties who have invested in the touch screen voting machines can not afford to meet this unfunded mandate without an increase in property taxes.
A change in Missouri’s election laws from voting on a single day to allow a choice for Early Voting could significantly reduce the cost of an election by decreasing the number of poll locations and the number of voting machines. In a time when state and local governments are struggling with reduced revenues Early Voting can reduce election costs significantly. Early voting is done in Texas and in Florida for different periods of time from a few days to as much as 17 days in Texas. I would suggest the adoption of a standard for Early Voting of one to five voting days prior to a Tuesday National election, including a presidential election. Voting on local elections with a smaller number of voters could be accommodated in one day, the regular Tuesday election. The point is to be flexible in serving voters according to expected voter turnout.
The number of polls required could be based on any number of criteria: school districts, natural barriers such as rivers, zip codes, or population centers such as incorporated towns. In some Missouri Cities for example Kansas City the school district is too large encompassing the entire city. Zip codes are not an exact location as some believe but overlap with each other even county lines. The logical choice for poll locations at least for rural Missouri is incorporated towns. Phelps county has five incorporated towns which would allow the number of polls to be 5 instead of the current 23. This is good for municipal as well as school elections.
With Early Voting an election is supervised by the County Clerk using existing office personnel and monitored by political party designated officials who validate election equipment as well as voters just as in a normal election. The difference being that the election is held at the County Court House in Rolla and in four other incorporated towns using one handicapped (touch screen) and one regular scanning voting machine at the five poll locations. There should be at least one back-up machine in case of equipment failure for a total six or seven handicapped (touch screen) and scanning machines. The saving comes from reducing poll locations from 23 to 5 and extending the voting period as in Early Voting with 5 polling areas each requiring Election Judges and with the reduction in both types of voting machines from about 50 to 14. Phelps County will benefit from the sale of the 18 touch screen computers as well as the sale of the 18 surplus scanning voting machines. The election reform will reduce Phelps County election costs by 50% to 70% while still meeting Federal mandates for handicap voters.
In Missouri Early Voting will require Legislative action authorizing the use of Early Voting and in some cases voter approval to make the change an alternative election procedure. Voters in Missouri will get a chance to vote on this issue in the Spring of 2012.
A second improvement authorizes local governments to use ballot printing equipment (backed-up in case of printer failure), to “pre-print” and to “print on demand” ballots during an Early Voting election. This reduces the significant cost of unused ballots which currently must be pre-printed in advance in large numbers in case there is a greater voter turnout than predicted.
Update Dec 6, 2013
The state legislature has voted to allow the polls to stay open for more than one day but counties have been reluctant to reduce the number of polling places even for up to a 50% reduction in election costs.
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