CLEVELAND, Ohio – Republican Ohio lawmakers’ decision to host a special election in August is expected to cost Cuyahoga County $3.2 million, local officials say, and they’re worried about who is going to pay for it.
There’s only one question on the ballot, State Issue 1, which, if passed, would require a 60% supermajority in future statewide votes to change the Ohio Constitution, rather than the current 50%, plus one vote threshold. It also would make it significantly harder to get issues on the ballot by requiring campaigns to collect a minimum number of signatures from all 88 counties, instead of the current 44 counties.
A “yes” vote would approve the changes while a “no” vote would reject them.
Read more: Coverage of State Issue 1
While the legality of the election is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit, the county must start preparing now, despite not knowing exactly how much the Aug. 8 election will cost or who will shoulder it.
Cuyahoga County’s Board of Elections Director Anthony Perlatti estimated it will cost the county’s 970 precincts around $3,250 each to print ballots, pay postage for mail-in ballots and provide extra staffing, especially considering it will be county residents’ first time using the new voting machines. But those costs might also increase if voter turnout is greater than expected – as he thinks it will be.
He worries that the $15 million currently proposed in the Senate budget won’t be enough to cover the bill. And though state law requires Ohio to pick up the tab for elections called “solely for the purpose of” a statewide ballot issue, “what we don’t have is a real answer on how that’s going to happen,” he told county council’s Budget and Finance committee on Monday.
Until then, the county must cover the expense out of the general fund.
Voter turnout
It’s the same burden that county elections offices are facing around the state. They also expect a costlier election.
That’s because elections officials are preparing for voter turnout higher than the August special election last year, according to Aaron Ockerman, who leads the Ohio Association of Election Officials, the trade group for county boards of election.
The central question to determining how much the Aug. 8 election may cost is whether it will be a low, medium or high-turnout election. Elections officials aren’t sure what to expect, since Ohio hasn’t held an August election to decide a statewide ballot issue since 1926. Generally, August elections are low turnout affairs, since many voters are on vacation and ballots typically involve non-candidate issues like local tax levies.
“I’ve talked to a gazillion counties,” Ockerman said, “and some counties have told me ‘We hope it’s 10%.’ And some counties have said ‘We think it could be 50%.’”
The state’s election in August 2022 to determine Republican and Democratic candidates for the Ohio House and Senate seats that were up for grabs that year only cost $13.8 million. But that’s because only 8% of registered voters cast ballots, setting a modern record for low voter turnout for a state primary election.
That election occurred under unusual circumstances: It was the state’s unprecedented second primary election of the year, after dysfunction in the state’s redistricting process meant that state legislative districts weren’t ready to go in May 2022, when the election was supposed to be held.
Because of that, counties spent less than they normally would, reserving fewer polling locations and printing off fewer ballots, in preparation for what they expected would be lower than average turnout. Cuyahoga County spent only $2 million, last year, Perlatti said.
Need to Know: How to register, where to vote, when the polls are open
Assurances
But most elections officials assume the August election this year will see higher turnout, driven by well-funded campaigns for and against the measure. The outcome will weigh heavily on the prospects of the “Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety” constitutional amendment that could appear on the November ballot. That amendment is a hot-button issue because it would guarantee patients get to make their own decisions about reproduction, including birth control, fertility treatment, continuing a pregnancy or abortion and miscarriage care until viability, which is around 22 to 24 weeks.
A six-week abortion ban signed by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine in January 2019, meanwhile, is on hold pending a court challenge.
The impact Issue 1 could have on abortion rights is especially prominent in Cuyahoga County, Perlatti said.
“The question on the ballot is something people are passionate about,” Perlatti said. “I know Cuyahoga County is leading the state in petition signatures for the question to be on the November (ballot), and I think those same efforts...will go into turning out the vote in August.”
Besides affecting how much the election will cost taxpayers, the degree to which voters turn out for an election also affects campaign strategy. In a lower-turnout environment, parties and campaigns typically focus on mobilizing their most loyal and reliable voters, rather than trying to spend additional resources persuading people on the fence or pulling in less frequent voters. The Ohio Republican Party, which opposes State Issue 1, in part because of its implications for the abortion issue in November, has said it is preparing for a lower election turnout. A top party official told local party leaders during a planning call last month that he’s preparing for turnout to be somewhere in the 8% to 12% range.
Either way, Ockerman said state leaders have assured him that counties will be reimbursed and are “not going to be left holding the bag on this.”
Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican who’s the state’s top elections officials, repeated that assurance when pressed by reporters in Columbus on Tuesday. He said he believes the $15 million already proposed “is adequate,” considering there’s also leftover money from the August 2022 election that could also be applied, but noted other funding mechanisms the state could tap into, if not.
“Whether it’s $15 million or something just north of that, the boards of elections will be compensated for the costs of running that election,” LaRose said.