The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1913-03-08
SATURDAY. MARCH s, 1913.
COST OF

close to a quarter of q million dollars
for the three general elections which,
they held during the year 1912. that
is. the presidential primary i'll March,
the state and county primary in June.
and the final election in November.
This takes no .ccount, of course. of
the various township. school and spe-
cial elections held during the year.
That is a lot of money, but there Were
a lot of votes cast. The question is
not what was the total cost, but what
was the cost per precinct or per voter.
and whether or not that cost was
greater thar it should have been.
Figured roughly the cost per voter
of the three elections amounts to
about one dollar per voter. or in the
neighborhood of 80 cents per voter
per election. This. as We understand
from the report intended to he sub
mitted to the legislatures includes the
cost of advertising election calls. print
ing ballots, expenses of election Off
cials, distribution Of ballots. publica-
ton of official pamphlets. postage, and
all the items that enter into the work
Of holding an election. Placed on that
basis the sum does no. look SO APP
palling.
As to whether or not the work may
be done for less money there are no
very definite data. \ glance over the
the figures, however. shows some re-
markable discrepancies. 1t is to be
understood that the cost Of an cleo
ton is not greatly affected by the
number Of votes actually cast at that
election. In a precinct with a large
number of voters the cost will he
somewhat greater than if the number
is small, but that additional expense
must be incurred in making the plans
for holding the election, as in provid-
ing suitable quarters to accommodate
many rather than few people, in pro-
viding clerical help for a large num-
her, and SO on. These preparations
made, it does not matter greatly
whether the voters turf out or not.
The expense has been incurred in pre-
pairing for them. and there will not be
much difference in the final cost
whether they actually vote or not.
Further, certain elements Of cost are
fixed. The delivery M collection of
ballot boxes, for instance, is the same
for n election as for another. There
are many similar items. Differences
in cost would, one would suppose, be
governed by the number Of persons to
be elected, size of ballot. and so forth,
and we would naturally expect to see
a practically uniform ratio Of cost in
all the counties between the several
elections held under like conditions.
In other words, if we should find that
the presidential primary in one county
cost just half as much as the state
and county primary. we should expect
to find about that ratio in every other
county. and in the aggregate. This
could be varied by the number of can
didates who had filed, as this would
govern the size of the ballot. But we
should scarcely expect the wide varia-
tions which are actually found in the
published statements. Some COMPARE
sons are interesting.
In all the counties the presidential
primary 8 less money than either
Of h other elections. In about half
the counties the fall election was the
most costly of the three, but in the
other half the state and county cleo.
ton was more expensive than the fall
election or practically cqualled it. The
most costly state and county primary
was in McHenry county, where the
cost was $4,195. In Williams county
the cost Of the state and county pri.
mary was $2,794. while the cost Of the
fall election was owe $1,000 less, being
$1,785. One naturally wonders why
the fall election cost Williams a thou.
sand dollars less than the fall election
while in Burleigh it cost over two
thousand more. The figures for tho
three elections in Cass are $793.5O
$3,725.77 and ~s2.756.40 respectively
The figures for Grand Forks count,
are $1.9G1.43. s3,3O4.05. and 33.334.53
Barnes county spent nearly 5000 NOR.
on the presidential primary than die
Cass. The presidential primary cos
some counties bout one.ffth as muci
as the June primary. In others it cos
two-thirds as much.
There may be local conditions which
will account nationally for these ant
other differences, but we cannot at tn,
moment think what they may be. I
these differences are not based on tn
necessities Of the case. there are, o
course. things to be reformed in som
Of the counties in the manner of con
Quoting elections. Whether a dolla
every other year per voter is too mucl
to pay for elections depends enttrel
on what the people get for their mon
ey. OF course a saving could be at
fected by holding no elections at al
but the people want elections. The
want to express themselves on certaI
things, and they are entitled to tn
opportunity to do 20. All Of the NOR
ey spent on elections. therefore. is no
wasted. There IL a waste II more cleo
tions are held than are needed for tn
expression Of the desire Of the cleo
tors on public matters. or II thos
elections. or any of them, r not con
Quoted ~ .~tnexpensively as 10 consisten
with the proper expression of opinion