According to Starke County Clerk Evelyn Skronski, the Election Board has been looking at a number of ways to reduce the expense of elections per voter. Skronski says that the May Primary was relatively expensive in terms of cost per voter in some precincts, such as Center 3, where the cost per voter came out to $10.79. This was the highest average cost per voter for any Starke County precinct, but Skronski says other townships with a higher voter turnout were significantly less expensive per voter, such as Oregon 1, where the average cost came out to $2.32 per voter.
Skronski says that some methods that were discussed to reduce the cost per precinct included reducing the number of poll workers in precincts with less than 700 registered voters. She says they could cut down on the cost by eliminating the presence of a sheriff at those locations, but the salaries of the poll workers would have to be increased because of their additional duties. Oregon 3, Jackson, and Center 6 precincts would be affected by the resolution.
Another idea was to combine precinct voting locations as they did with Center Township precincts 1, 2, 3, and 4. Combining those precincts reduced the cost significantly, from $7.11 per voter to $4.52, and Skronski estimates that they could save $1000 per election by combining Washington Township precincts 1 and 2 with Wayne Township precincts 1 and 2.
Skronski says the board is currently working on a resolution for these changes.
