 |
| May 05, 2024 |
Welcome! Click here to Login
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Click to visit the
Official Town Site
|
|
|
|
|
|
General News: Cost of Elections on the RIse
November 02, 2010
Cornwall town officials are not happy with the cost of running the elections that are mandated by Orange County. In 2011, the costs are going up approximately 36%, according to the Orange County Association of Towns, Villages and Cities that passed a resolution last week to express concern about the new charges. In Cornwall, the town budgeted $18,000 for election costs in 2010 but fees for the new voting machines have already run as high as $23,000, according to councilman Randy Clark, who says the town has to budget $65,000 for 2011..
On Monday, town council members talked about the increased costs and noted that it was much less burdensome for the town to run the election itself. The county has been in charge since 2007.
“I don’t understand how we are being charged for this when we did this cheaper and more efficiently,” councilwoman Mary Beth Greene Krafft commented, agreeing with councilman Randy Clark who said, “these costs are ridiculous.”
Town clerk Elaine Tilford Schneer explained that each town was told that it needs to hire two more individuals —a Democrat and a Republican -- to bring the results to Middletown to the main campus. “If the county was required to be responsible for the budget it would be monitored more appropriately,” she said.
Among the costs that will be charged back to municipalities in 2011 are $20 an hour for machine technicians to set up machines and $120 per machine to transport it in a truck and on a cart, plus $20 an hour for the delivery person.
In its resolution, the Orange County Association of Towns, Villages and Cities noted that municipalities are already struggling to meet unfunded state and federal mandates, “which are already creating a burden and hardship on our residents” and calls on county executive Ed Diana to remove these charge backs.
Comments:
|
Two points are worth making here.
1. In the old days, it was the lever machines which contained and were the best evidence of the vote; now, the paper ballots are. So those ballots must be protected on their way to the Board of Elections. (The alternative electronic system is the paperless, unverifiable kind that nobody wants.)
2. As to the county backcharging for election costs, every level of government in this county has been controlled by Republicans for decades. So, if you don't like the costs for this and the new building spree in Goshen, you know where to send your thank-you note.
posted by Jon Chase on 11/03/10 at 6:34 PM
|
|
Here's a 3d point: There's no privacy. Anyone can walk by and see who you're voting for.
posted by Jack Brennan on 11/03/10 at 8:43 PM
|
|
I coordinated a volunteer voter rights protection effort Tuesday, with 22 people covering polling locations all across the county.
Privacy was one of the things we found handled inconsistently, both with lack of curtains in many locations and with failure properly to use the "privacy sleeve" folders meant to conceal the ballots once they are marked.
Hopefully, these issues will be addressed in the future, so we all have the secret ballot to which we are entitled when we vote.
posted by Jon Chase on 11/04/10 at 11:17 AM
|
Add a Comment:
Please signup or login to add a comment.
|
 |
|
|
|
