Council To Consider Cost of November Local Elections

(Thursday) January 28, 2010

By Carla Branch and James Cullum
alexandrianews.org

When the Alexandria City Council voted, 4-3, not to request any further city charter changes on local elections from the Virginia General Assembly, they were warned that more equipment would be required to handle the 2012 election. During the upcoming budget deliberations, Council will consider adding $270,000 to the fiscal year 2013 capital budget to purchase additional voting machines.

In 2012, elections for City Council, School Board, members of the U. S. House of Representatives, one member of the U. S. Senate from Virginia and the president and vice president of the United States will coincide. Anna Leider, secretary of the Alexandria Electoral Board discussed the problem and recommended solutions in a Sept. 22, 2009, memorandum to Alexandria City Manager Jim Hartmann.

In 2006, the Virginia General Assembly passed a law prohibiting the purchase of fully electronic voting systems such as the eSlate, which is used in Alexandria, or purchasing replacement equipment for these systems. “We recommend that the City begin preparing to purchase a new system, supplement the current system and/or plan other contingencies,” Leider wrote.

Potential issues include:

• Addition of polling places as a result of population growth and the 2011 redistricting process

• Addition of polling places to reduce the size of precincts, accommodate longer ballots and minimize delay for voters

• Federal/state legislation requiring replacement of electronic voting machines

• Voter or political demand for new machines providing a paper trail

• Increase in voting machine malfunctions (expected at some point in the future)

• Longer ballots resulting from move of local elections to the fall especially if mayor, Council and School Board elections are held in 2012, along with the presidential election

• Longer ballots from other issues such as years in which State Constitutional questions appear on the ballot

Leider provided Hartmann with three options: (1) purchase a new voting system at an estimated cost of $500,000 to $1 million; (2) Supplement current system with digital scan paper ballot system for approximately $270,000, including backup equipment; and (3) Expand absentee voting, which would cost $10,000 to $15,000 per election for part-time staff at an additional absentee location and a minimal cost to set up existing voting equipment and to establish an Internet connection to verify the eligibility of voters.

As currently configured, local elections will coincide with the presidential election every 12 years. Additional voting equipment could be rented at a cost of $60,000. “This certainly has some merit because we aren’t going to have this problem except when the local and national elections occur at the same time,” said Alexandria General Registrar Tom Parkins. “The problem is that the equipment might not be available when we want it.”

It appears that Hartmann will recommend that Council include the cost of additional equipment in his proposed FY2013 capital budget. As there is no money to fund this purchase, Council will have to decide what to do. Hartmann will present his proposed FY2011 operating and FY2011-2016 capital improvement program to Council on Feb. 9.