Cost of early voting to exceed $200 per ballot cast in Clarkton
SOUTHEASTERN NORTH CAROLINA (WECT) - County boards of elections are still tabulating how much they spent running recent municipal contests, but preliminary numbers show some towns will pay large sums for each ballot cast during early voting. Other towns opted not to participate in early voting.
The Town of Clarkton will pay the Bladen County Board of Elections at least $217.08 per absentee vote, including ballots cast in person at the "one-stop" location and by mail.
In Bladen County, the $2,605 paid to early-voting poll workers will be divided equally among the four towns that participated in absentee voting, according to Elections Director Cynthia Shaw.
The Board of Elections will bill Clarkton $651.25 for its share of the wages. Three Clarkton voters cast ballots at the one-stop site, and none voted by mail.
In addition to poll workers, towns will pay expenses including ballots and supplies. Those costs are still being tallied, Shaw said.
Based only on the cost of poll workers, Bladenboro will pay $18.09 per one-stop early vote, Elizabethtown will pay $1.57, and White Lake will pay $15.88.
Voters in Dublin, East Arcadia and Tar Heel did not have the option of voting early. State law allows town councils to pass resolutions opting out of absentee voting.
While Bladen County divides the cost of early-voting poll workers equally among participating towns, other counties use different methods.
Pender County towns pay a portion of the expense based on their number of eligible voters. Home to 41 percent of eligible voters, Burgaw has the largest bill for one-stop workers, $615, according to Elections Director Dennis Boyles. But Surf City will pay the most per ballot cast, $97.50. The town owes $585 and had just six one-stop votes cast. Another five Surf City residents voted by mail, which wouldn't have been possible if the town had not participated in absentee voting.
Surf City Mayor Zander Guy said the town hadn't considered opting out of early voting.
"I think that we would need probably to make some inquiries among our citizens to get some feelings from them because some folks do obviously take their voting very seriously and I'm glad that they do," Guy said.
Like Pender County, Brunswick County charges towns for one-stop poll workers based on their number of eligible voters. Shallotte will pay the most per ballot. The town's share is $103.27. With four ballots case, Shallotte will pay at least $25.82 per one-stop vote.
New Hanover County Board of Elections bills for one-stop poll workers based on each municipality's percentage of the total one-stop turnout, according to Director Derek Bowens.
Wilmington residents made up 89 percent of New Hanover County one-stop voters. Based on an estimated $6,800 expense for poll workers, Wilmington will pay $6,052 ($4.65 per vote). Wrightsville Beach voters had the lowest one-stop turnout in the county. According to Bowens' estimates, the town will pay $136 ($4.25 per vote) toward poll workers.
The Columbus County Board of Elections did not respond to a request for information.
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