ROCKINGHAM — With Mark Harris withdrawing from a special election for the 9th Congressional District, it seems more likely there will have to be a primary for the race.
Aside from the inconvenience of having to go back to the polls, the new election could cost the county upwards of $150,000.
Elections Director Connie Kelly broke down the costs in an email to County Manager Bryan Land on Monday.
Unless the General Assembly changes the law, Kelly said, the Richmond County Board of Elections (and other boards of elections) is required to have early voting open for 13-17 days. She added that the board could vote to open for two additional Saturdays or Sundays.
Kelly went on to say that a law change last year requires the board of elections office to be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day that early voting is open.
“The only way around that is to have early voting in the board of elections office and as you know…that is impossible with our current situation,” she said.
Kelly added in parentheses that the county would need additional voting sites in 2020, “so you can expect those same hours at each location our board votes to open.”
Absentee ballots, which are sent through the mail, are available for every election and Kelly said they must be available 50 days prior to a primary and 60 days prior to a general election. The postage to mail those ballots in the last election was $500.
If the county was to have just one early voting location, staffing would cost around $13,000 — with six to eight workers being spit into two shifts per day — plus an additional $2,800 to staff the office, since early voting is held at another location.
On election day, staffing costs range from $14,000-$17,000 for the 16 locations, depending on the number of staffers at each site.
Elections expenses, according to Kelly, run around $18,000 — which includes ballot printing costs, voting equipment programming, supplies, and the $800 per location polling place rental fees.
The cost of part-time staffing, both for early voting and the precincts, for the last general election was $38,000.
“We start using part-time staff 60 days out to help us with programming and testing voting equipment, preparing laptops and printers for early voting and election day,” Kelly said. “Training precinct officials usually begins (two) months out.
With all of that added up, Kelly estimated that it would cost $50,000-$60,000 for each election. That means with just one primary and one general election, it would cost the county around $100,000.
If there is no clear winner in the primary election, state statute calls for a second primary, which would result in three elections. If that were to be the case, the county would be stuck with a $150,000 election bill that it hasn’t budgeted for.
“There is not money in the budget for an election,” Kelly told the RO in December. “Whether we have a primary and general election or just a general election, it is going to cost the county additional money.”
The election will also likely be a burden on the other counties in the district, many of which are also Tier 1 counties.
The 9th Congressional District comprises Richmond, Anson, Scotland, Robeson and Union counties, with parts of Mecklenburg, Cumberland and Bladen counties.
