Upcoming DC Vote Highlights (Fixed) Costs of Special Elections

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Washington DC’s City Paper has a new story looking at the upcoming election in the Nation’s Capital. “Loose Lips” (LL) has the details:

Are you pumped for election day this Tuesday? LL’s not talking about the mayoral primary–that was in April. Or the general election, which is still four months from now. Instead, District voters will go to the polls next week to cast ballots for a special election for Ward 8’s seat on the State Board of Education.

A special election to fill a position on the toothless State Board of Education isn’t anyone’s idea of a hot race. But even if District residents aren’t paying attention to it, they are paying for it. Holding the election will cost roughly $300,000, according to D.C. Board of Elections spokeswoman Tamara Watkins.

This general story – special election draws little voter interest but not insignificant pubic spending – is almost becoming a cliche on this blog. But, if nothing else, it illuminates the notion of fixed costs – the money that will be spent before a single voter shows up:

[A]ccording to a draft budget prepared by the DCBOE, even running a small election costs a lot of money. Printing fees are expected to cost around $38,500, while voting systems cost $37,000. $43,730 will go to payments to poll staff, including $28,200 just for election day work.

That’s in line with what the District has paid for other recent special elections, including $317,000 for a 2012 Council race in Ward 5.

Loose Lips lays out how this election came to be – or, more accurately, was never required not to be:

Not even the Board of Elections … wanted a vote this summer. After then-Ward 8 SBOE member Trayon White resigned from his position in March to take a job in the District’s Department of Parks and Recreation, the Board of Elections sent a letter to Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry asking him to consider legislation that would move the special election past the required 114-day election deadline and onto the November ballot. If the Council really wanted to fill White’s seat quickly, the letter said, the special election could be conducted by mail.

Despite the request, though, the Council didn’t do anything. Barry, who endorsed White in 2012 but has stayed out of the latest race, didn’t attempt to move the vote or push for mail-in ballots.

Instead, Barry’s office sent other councilmembers notice of a bill to move the election, but never introduced the legislation, according to spokeswoman Latoya Foster. She says the decision came after Barry talked with constituents worried about leaving the seat open.

“They came to the conclusion that it was wrong to not have a representative on the school board for that extended period of time,” Foster says.

I do think LL gets one thing wrong when he suggests he “would expect [DCBOE] to be the biggest proponents of extraneous elections.” Election budgets like the costs cited above are fixed and any additional votes tend to drain the already limited funds available. Once the election is scheduled, the office will do what it must to publicize the vote – which in this case includes $12,000 in “yard signs, mailings, and advertisements” according to the article.

For now, there doesn’t seem to be much voter interest in the race: only 55 voters have cast early ballots to date. Unfortunately for District voters those ballots – and all the other unvoted once still waiting (likely in vain) to be cast – have already been paid for.