County Commission | The Magazine April 2018 | Page 29

FROM THE COVER
GENERAL TIPS:
Election Administration
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Editor’s note: Commissioners and affiliate members alike always say that one of the best
things about this Association is learning from their peers around the state. Alabama counties
operate in a one-of-a-kind legal framework, and it is a great benefit to connect with others
facing similar challenges. With that in mind, we reached out to a few “boots-on-the-ground”
experts for their advice on election administration.
Maximize your county’s
reimbursement
“Elections can get expensive,”
said Clay County’s Mary Wood,
president of the Association of
County Administrators of Alabama.
“I try to save as much money
as possible.”
Many of the routine costs
for administering an election are
eligible for state reimbursement,
and federal funds from Help
America Vote Act (HAVA)
programs may be available for
additional items.
Wood said in her experience
it is important to prepare
reimbursement claims with great
care – using the comptroller’s
current form and providing
thorough documentation
for expenses.
The reimbursement rate varies
depending on what is on the
ballot. (See page 31 for a detailed
explanation.)
But bear in mind that even
when the state’s reimbursement rate
is 100 percent, full reimbursement
is only available for the defined
group of eligible expenses, such as
poll worker pay and statutorily-
required newspaper advertising.
This means that there are
routine and often justifiable
expenditures, such as renting a
polling place or repairing a voting
machine, that are not reimbursable
under current state law and thus are
the county’s full responsibility.
Mine your turnout data, but
don’t cut too close
If a county has 100,000
registered voters, how many
primary ballots should be ordered?
100,000 of the Democr atic version
and an equal number of the GOP
version? Order too many and it
wastes money and increases the
workload on poll workers, said Bill
English of Lee County. “The catch
is I’ve got to have enough.”
His approach is to carefully
track turnout for various elections,
depending on what’s on the ballot.
“On our best day ever, a third of
the people stay home,” he said of
Obama’s 2008 general election win.
In Lee County, primary turnout
is usually heavier in years such as
2018, when the governor’s race
leads the ballot, but he has found
that general election turnout is
greater in presidential years. “More
people care about president than
they do about the governor,” he
commented.
Following the trends might
translate into, as in the example
above with 100,000 registered
voters, ordering 40,000 Republican
primary ballots and 20,000
Democratic ones for a grand total
of 60,000 primary ballots ordered.
Always plan for some extras, he
said. Even with his 30+ years – first
as the county’s election supervisor
and later as the probate judge/
chairman – turnout at December’s
U.S. Senate election surprised him.
“We were close, but we didn’t run
out,” he said.
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