Editorials
Placing blame where it belongs
We know it’s fashionable for taxing bodies to point the finger of blame away from themselves when budget season rolls around.
It’s always easy to cite a poor economy, new state or federal regulations and simple “factors beyond our control” when trying to figure out why costs are skyrocketing.
In many cases, the accusations are warranted. In some, they’re simply part of the problem. But in one specific instance, the state and federal government are entirely to blame for extra expense to be put on the shoulders of Clinton County taxpayers.
Thanks to the federal Help America Vote Act, a response to the Florida mess of 2000, state election officials were charged with defining and enforcing election equipment standards. In Iowa, Secretary of State Chet Culver — now a candidate for governor — decided each county would need to own and operate optical scan equipment.
Not only did that render useless Clinton County’s voting machines — only a few years old and in perfect condition — it also forced the county into spending more than $380,000 on new equipment, with only a $278,500 federal government allocation to do so.
It gets worse.
The new equipment will cost the county about $11,600 in annual maintenance. The new ballots will be outsourced at a cost of $12,000. It also will cost an extra $6,000 for larger envelopes for mailing absentee ballots, and an extra $2,500 in postage.
That’s about $32,000 a year. That may not seem like a lot, but the county has been eliminating positions in recent years, and $32,000 would go a long way toward keeping another employee around.
Beyond that, the county will need to provide about 20 hours of training for election officials to understand the new machines. That alone will make it impossible to give poll workers the wage increase they’ve asked for, at least for this year.
It all starts to add up, and we’re still stuck with a bunch of perfectly good voting machines that haven’t come close to being used long enough to offset their purchase price.
Perhaps the county can donate them to local high schools for ultra-secure homecoming queen and student council elections, then write off the cost as a charitable contribution.
Of course, that’s a ridiculous idea. But it’s also ridiculous for state and federal officials to expect us to find a way to pay for this new edict, then come around on the campaign trail and tell us how great they are for making elections better.
Several people dropped the ball on this issue, and we hope local voters remember who deserves to be held accountable.
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