COURT HOUSE – It costs plenty – about $117,000 – to have free elections. That’s just for ballots, addressing and mailing.
Freeholders passed two resolutions April 12 related to upcoming elections. Both were open-end contracts.
The first was to Universal Mailing Service, Inc. of Piscataway to “furnish mailing preparation of data and imprinting on sample ballots…” Two proposals were received March 22; Universal’s was selected for one year with two, one-year options for renewal.
The next was to Election Graphics Inc. of North Bergen to “furnish and deliver election ballots…” It, too, was for one year with two one-year options for renewal.
Asked about the two contracts, County Clerk Rita Fulginiti, whose office is responsible to prepare and send those ballots, provided the following:
“For each election we have printed five different types of ballots, sample ballots mailed to all active voters, machine ballots for the voting machines placed at each of the 127 voting districts throughout the county, mail in ballots for voting by mail, emergency ballots to be kept in each voting machine in case of machine failure and provisional ballots to be used at the polling place when a voter’s name is not in the poll book or the poll book indicates the voter was sent a mail in ballot.
“We also order many election forms including envelopes of various sizes, polling place forms etc.
“For this June 7 Primary Election we will order (approximately) 71,000 sample ballots to be mailed to active voters (approximately 64,272 active voters plus 10 percent), 256 machine ballots (two per machine), 13,000 mail-in ballots, 127 packages of 30 emergency ballots (15 Democrat, 15 Republican), and 127 packets of 100 provisional ballots (50 Democrat, 50 Republican).”
“We budgeted $128,500 in 2016 for both services. We send data to Universal Mailing Service and they imprint voter names, addresses and polling information on each sample ballot and mail them for $0.061 per ballot plus postage.
“In 2015 we paid them a total of $8,226.84 (plus $11,482.29 postage) for mailing sample ballots for Primary, General and Special Elections.
“I expect our mailing cost this year will be approximately $11,500 plus postage due to increased numbers for Presidential year elections. Last year we paid out $88,612.90 for election printing.
“I expect our printing cost this year to be approximately $117,000 due to Presidential year elections and Democratic and Republican County Committee elections in each election district.”
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