FISCAL NOTE
Date Requested: January 29, 2020
Time Requested: 03:57 PM |
| Agency: |
Secretary of State |
|---|
| CBD Number: |
Version: |
Bill Number: |
Resolution Number: |
| 2943 |
Introduced |
HB2605 |
|
|---|
| CBD Subject: |
|
|---|
|
FUND(S):
N/a
Sources of Revenue:
Other Fund N/a
Legislation creates:
Fiscal Note Summary
Effect this measure will have on costs and revenues of state government.
The proposed bill does not require the state to incur any additional costs because neither the Secretary of State nor other state agency bears financial responsibility for ballot creation or election administration; those costs are borne by the county commissions of each county.
However, the county commissions will likely have increased costs for placing the question on the ballot. In short, the longer the ballot, the more it costs.
Fiscal Note Detail
| Effect of Proposal |
Fiscal Year |
2020
Increase/Decrease
(use"-") |
2021
Increase/Decrease
(use"-") |
Fiscal Year
(Upon Full
Implementation) |
| 1. Estmated Total Cost |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Personal Services |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Current Expenses |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Repairs and Alterations |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Assets |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Other |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| 2. Estimated Total Revenues |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Explanation of above estimates (including long-range effect):
If the measure passes and a municipality elects to hold its local election in conjunction with a regular primary and/or general election, the costs of holding such elections concurrently will increase the costs of ballot creation, voting machine preparation/programming/testing, and poll book production. These costs will not decrease over time as long as the municipality holds its election concurrently. The longer a ballot, and the more ballots required to be programmed into voting machines, the higher the cost on the county.
Memorandum
Many municipalities are divided into local districts or wards, which geographical boundaries do not align with county precinct boundaries. In that case, municipal wards and their respective races on the ballot must be manually determined to ensure the proper voters have the proper ballots.
It is recommended to include provisions that require municipalities to either align their municipal precincts with county precincts, or otherwise place the burden of identifying the proper municipal geographical boundaries and assisting the county clerks with determining the proper precincts for each local race.
Additionally, regarding the costs of paying for the election, it is recommended to require municipalities to share in the costs of the ballot creation, voting machine testing and programming, and election day workers. Perhaps a rational method of determining the municipality's shared cost is a simple function of county voter registration and municipal voter registration.
For example, if the municipality has 10% of the total county voter registration, then the municipality pays 10% of the total cost of ballot production, voting machine preparation, sample ballot publication, and election day workers.
Person submitting Fiscal Note: Donald Kersey
Email Address: dkersey@wvsos.gov