Trim School Election Costs by Using Fewer Machines, Workers?

CREST HAVEN — Will school administrators in the county’s 17 districts see any benefit in a proposal that would trim the cost of school elections — countywide by nearly $26,000 — by reducing the number of voting machines used in those elections? The plan would also make poll hours consistent and would pay all poll workers equally.
At the freeholders’ Mon, Nov. 7 meeting, held a day earlier than usual due to Election Day, Freeholder M. Susan Sheppard mentioned the proposal hatched by Michael Kennedy, registrar, on behalf of the Cape May County Board of Elections.
A Nov. 4 memo from Cape May County Clerk Rita Fulginiti to each school superintendent briefly described the savings each district could experience, from as little as $172 in West Cape May to just over $6,000 in Ocean City.
Small increases, under $100, would be experienced in Wildwood Crest, West Wildwood and Cape May Point due to “the changes in the poll hours and poll worker compensation to bring them to a consistent level countywide.
Fulginiti told the Herald voter turnout for school elections averages about 12 percent, far less than general elections.
The plan asks districts to contact the County Clerk by Dec. 31 if they are interested in joining the plan.
Under Kennedy’s plan:
* Consolidate districts served in the same polling locations. “We propose a plan which will trim the number of voting machines utilized for school elections throughout Cape May County. While keeping all the same polling locations to which voters are accustomed to using, we propose to consolidate two or more districts voting on the same voting machine.” There are districts around the county serving multiple election districts with one voting machine allocated for each. The plan is to consolidate those districts served in the same polling location with voters of two or more districts voting on the same machine.
Fewer machines mean fewer poll workers, who would earn $12.86 per hour, or $90 per election working from 3 to 9 p.m. That is six hours the polls are open with a half hour preparation time prior and half hour after the polls close.
Kennedy said the County Clerk’s Office and Board of Elections have received numerous phone calls from voters expressing confusion over polling hours.
Consistent hours, wrote Kennedy, would benefit voters, especially seniors, who may be reluctant to venture to the polls at night, or to working parents who need night voting.
It would be easier for the Board of Elections to fill poll worker posts, something that has been difficult in communities paying lower wages to poll workers, Kennedy wrote.