(Source: MIRS.news, Published 11/27/2023) Without legislative change, the cost of putting on this year's special elections will fall to county and municipal governments that run them, Michigan Bureau of Elections Director Jon Brater told MIRS.
He referenced two special elections called last Wednesday by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, with a special primary election set for Jan. 30 and a general election date of April 16 to fill the two now-vacant House seats (See "Special Elections Announced For Jan. 30, April 16," 11/22/23).
When asked who's going to foot the bill for those elections, Brater said it will be a "combination of the county and municipal governments that are running the elections."
He said legislation has been proposed by Democrats that would require the state to reimburse municipalities for special election costs (See "Paiz Picks Up Special Election Reimbursement Bill," 1/20/23).
Rep. Veronica A. Paiz (D-Harper Woods)'s HB 4033 , which was modeled after a bill introduced by former Rep. Alex Garza in 2022, gives cities, counties and any other municipality participating in a special legislative election 90 days after a special election to submit a verified account of costs, which does not include salaries of permanent local officials or the cost of reusable supplies and equipment to the state Department of Treasury's local audit and finance division.
The funding would come out of the state General Fund, which Paiz said would help ease the burden on small municipalities.
But the bill has not yet advanced through the Senate, following a 94-13 vote out of the House in May.
"It's possible that the Legislature could decide, either for … this special election or in general, to start paying for that, but in the absence of a change to the statute or something special for this election, it would be a local accounting cost."
One new requirement that could save clerks money is the nine days of early voting, which Brater said will not be required in special elections for state office.
Though it will be mandated for the Feb. 27 presidential primary, he said it will only be offered in January and April special elections if clerks decide to offer it.
"Given the logistical challenges, I'm not sure that they would decide to do that with the election coming up so quickly," he said.
Those logistical challenges are running multiple elections at the same time, with early voting for the presidential primary starting soon after the January election and multiple different absentee ballots out at the same time.
Brater said it will be a "logistical challenge," but added that the Bureau will be talking with locals to ensure that ballots, equipment and election workers are available.
But he added that there's really no time these special elections could have been held that wouldn't hold some challenges.
"It would also have been challenging to do them at the same time as the presidential primary, because then you'd potentially have to have two separate ballots because of the way the presidential primary ballot works," he said.
