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Voting Costs Still Linger
11/07/08 - 05:18 PM
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Election day may be over but the costs remain.  Election officials are still searching for answers after going over budget for an unexpected extension of early voting hours.

“You have to have people to fill the hours and people don’t do things for free,” said Bay County Supervisor of Elections Mark Andersen, “We’re looking at approximately 16 thousand dollars.”

He says that figure comes from paying 36 poll workers.  When voting hours extended, their pay shifted from a daily salary of $80 to $140, to an hourly rate ranging from $11.20 to $19.50.  He attributes the rest to taxes and fees.

“We don’t have a whole bunch of people you can just pick and say go do this,” said Andersen, “so we wanted to make sure that we treated them fairly.”

Andersen sent letters to county and state officials telling them how much he needs, but he says he’s not holding out hope for the state.  County Commission Chair Jerry Girvin also doubts the state will pay.

“That’s probably a 50-50 chance, and we the county are going to wind up having to take it out of general funds,” said Girvin.

But, county officials will wait for the state’s response first.

“Since this came from Tallahasse and covered state-wide, it is our feeling that it is their responsibility to pay for it,” said Girvin, “And we are billing them accordingly.”