The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-10-14
November Vote VIII Be More
Expensive to Kansas.
Increase of More Than $4,000
Due to New Law.
BALLOT PRINTING IS HEAVIER
Double Election Board Means
More in Salaries.
In Shawnee County $4,000 Bal
lots Will Be Needed.

Judges ard clerks alone in the cleo
ton in November will cost 81 S,9Z1
more in Kansas than they did in the
November election two years ago
when the ballots were handled by a
single election board. This does not
include the added expense of the new
method of printing ballots Efforts
were made today to estimate the in
crease in cost to Kansas of the double
election boards.
An accurate estimate would be i'm
possible until months after the
election But it is known now that
the $13.525 increase for judges and
clerks is not the only big item of
extra expense.
Under the double election board law
two boards must be employed in every
election precinct in Kansas in which
ESQ or more votes were cast for the
various candidates for secretary of
state at the last general election. A
provision also demands that in pre-
cincts of this size two sets of ballots,
instead of one, must be printed.
One Ballot Sufficed.
The excess in cost of this new meth
cd of printing cannot be estimated.
In past general elections one blanket
ballot sufficed for the voter on gen.
eral and county candidates. Now in
the precincts with ESQ or more voters
two sets of ballots, one for general
officers and another for state and
township officers are demanded. In
the smaller precincts with only one
board the old blanket ballot is all that
is needed. The precinct ballots in
these small precincts, however, are
separate while in the larger precincts
the voter finds these officers listed on
the same ballot on which the names
of the county candidates appear.
In Shawnee county, the clerk esti
mates that $4,000 ballots will be re-
CURED for approximately 10000 vot-
ers The clerk declares that if the
statutory rate for printing were paid
Shawnee county would soon go broke
in advancing the money for the town
ship and city. But bids are taken, and
Shawnee gets her ballots at far less
cost than some counties with one
fourth the vote and where the county
printer demands his full legal pay.
621 Double Boards.
Figures compiled from records in
the office of ]. It. Botkin, secretary of
state, indicate that nearly one-fourth
of the voting precincts in Kansas will
have double election boards next
month. There are about $500 pre-
cincts in the state. including the cities.
OF these 621 will be entitled to dou-
BILE election boards.
In nine counties there are no pre-
cinctS which have sufficient voters to
entitle them to double election boards.
These counties are Cove, Grant,
Greeley, Haskell, Kearney, Kingman,
Norton, Stanton and Stevens. While
Kingman is a large county it has an
unusual number CT precincts and it
happens that there are none with $50
votes for secretary of state altho one
or two had more than this number of
votes cast for other officers.
Largest in Shawnee.
There are many western counties
with only one precinct entitled to the
double board. Shawnee county has
the largest number of precincts re-
quiring double boards. Wyandotte has
the largest number of precincts but
most of them are small. Only twenty
four Wyandotte precincts are large
enough for the double board. Sedg-
wick county has only twenty-seven
while Crawford has thirty. Reno
county has seventeen and Leaven-
worth county, sixteen.
The estimate on the cost of the add
ed election board is based upon figures
submitted by the Shawnee county
clerk in which he estimates that the
average salary of the clerk or judge
on the board will be 81 a day and that
five extra officials must be employed
under the law. This makes 120 extra
TO each precinct with 621 precincts in
the state calling for an extra board
under the new law