The Summit County Board of Elections proposed a budget of $9.3 million for this year, or three times the sum requested by the boards in Lucas County and Montgomery County, two comparable sized counties. The Summit plan called for $2.2 million more than the board spent in the 2008 presidential election year. No wonder Russ Pry, the county executive, and members of the County Council, cried: Whoa! They reason correctly: There must be a sum closer to the $3 million spent in Lucas and Montgomery that would permit Summit to run efficient and effective elections.
Pry and the council have proposed $4.8 million for the elections board, or 60 percent more than in Lucas and Montgomery. On Tuesday, the board deadlocked on a Republican plan to begin the necessary squeezing and trimming. The Republicans pushed for reducing dramatically the number of precincts in the county and eliminating the position of district poll worker coordinator, who work part time but receive full-time benefits.
The proposal would not generate sufficient savings, the reduction in precincts yielding an estimated $124,000 and the end of poll worker coordinators producing $100,000. More, is the right course to whack precincts from the current 475 to 269? Between the primary and the general election? Lucas and Montgomery have reduced their precincts to 354 and 360, respectively.
Republicans also have floated the idea of abandoning an outside location for in-person early voting. Yet, again, the savings hardly is substantial, a projected $50,000. As it is, this convenience likely will prove more important in the process of conducting an election with fewer precincts.
Ideally, the elections board long ago would have begun to update its operations in a more aggressive way. What must be avoided now is a sloppy rush. As encouraging as it is to see Alex Arshinkoff and his Republicans cohorts channeling a Kasichesque spirit, they appear determined to violate the old John Wooden adage: Be quick, but don’t hurry.
The executive’s office has yet to complete its analysis of how Lucas and Montgomery counties do it. Russ Pry and his team have an obligation to put forward a plan that gets the elections board to $4.8 million — without jeopardizing the smooth conduct of elections.
This should be a deliberative process, with eyes on the short term and the long term, looking at the number of full-time and part-time employees, and how they are used and paid. Montgomery has benefited from cross-training workers, producing a leaner and more flexible staff. It also has invested in electronic poll books, saving time at the polls and reducing errors in provisional ballots.
The effort should be collaborative and thoughtful, without Jon Husted, the secretary of state, asked to break ties. Here is a moment when government should look to operate like a business, casting aside the usual partisan posturing, putting first the customer, or the taxpayer and voter.
