Contributed by Carolyn Jackson, Lobbying Coordinator
At the Ramsey County Board meeting on June 12, Election Manager Joe Mansky laid out his estimates of the cost of administering the proposed elections constitutional amendment. He estimated the cost to be approximately $1.7 million. For a county with 288,395 registered voters, that amounts to about $5.89 per voter.
How does that compare to the cost of doing elections now? I have the breakdown of the costs of elections for the City of New Hope. Currently, it costs the City of New Hope just over $64,000 to administer an election
New Hope has 11,416 registered voters. If you take Joe Mansky's estimate per voter and apply it to New Hope, the additional cost of administering elections will be over $67,000.
That means administering this photo ID amendment will more than DOUBLE THE COST OF ELECTIONS for at least one Minnesota city.
In a study done by the Humphrey Institute, it estimates that total costs would be around 35 million dollars, while other organizations have put the cost even higher.
All this, while we are closing libraries, laying off teachers, and driving on crumbling roads, for a problem that doesn't exist.