Low-turnout Democratic Town Committee Primaries Come With Taxpayer Price Tag

On March 1, three of 10 Democratic Town Committee districts will battle for political control with 27 seats up for grabs. The voter turnout will be lucky to hit 10 percent. And in some district precincts, more votes may be cast via absentee ballot than on the machines. What’s the taxpayer tab for this? More than $20,000, and that doesn’t include police overtime costs of thousands more, according to combined assessments by elections officials.

The Registrar’s Office bears the largest share of the non-police costs, but the Town Clerk’s Office has costs too such as printing absentee ballots and the associated postage for mailing more than 1,000 ballots to voters in six precincts. Other costs include overtime for police assigned to work at each polling station and custodians for polling place set-up.

Three districts, the West Side 132nd, East Side 137th and Upper East Side 138th have primaries. The top nine vote producers from each district will join the 90-member Democratic Town Committee that endorses candidates for public office and elects a chair.

Here’s a cost estimate provided by the Registrar’s Office. Does not include costs of regular office staff.

ELECTION OFFICIALS

AB Head Moderators $1,100.00
AB Counters $1,050.00

Primary Head Moderators $1,000.00
Supervised Ballot Officials $1,500.00

Polling Election Officials $6,660.00

Sub Total $9,810.00

EQUIPMENT/SUPPLIES/EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE

Machines $654.00
Memory Cards $860.00
Ballots $4,240.00
Sample Ballot Posters $150.00
Ballot Style $150.00
Sub Total $6,064.00

Total $15,874.00

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9 comments

  1. So the Town Clerk’s Office has costs too such as printing absentee ballots and the associated postage for mailing more than 1,000 ballots to voters in six precincts. Well I hope this will be a clean election without absentee ballots being a problem.

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        1. So confusing, and typical of this city to have both a city and town clerk. Thanks Lennie, watching this city from afar is most entertaining. Closing on house 4/14, so while I still pay taxes will weigh in from time to time.

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  2. So now Lennie wants to put a price tag on democracy.
    Sounds like something Finch would have come up with.
    Pick you poison Lennie, caucus or primary.
    Or caucus and if you don’t like those results then go have a primary.

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