Voter turnout 'fickle,' according to area election officials

Would you pay $600 to vote? How about $11?
That’s what it cost voters in Lone Grove and Ardmore for two previous elections, an example that voters can be fickle. Typically, voter response will run anywhere from 4 to less than 20 percent on the “average” local or state election. Over recent years, election officials count a 30-35 percent voter response as “heavy.” 
Love County Election Board Secretary Cleta Willis said the ballot determines voter interest. Pointing to January’s liquor-by-the-drink county vote, she was flabbergasted when 51 percent of the county’s registered voters turned out. Despite the fact that his side lost a hair-splitting vote that passed the proposal by a scant 426 vote margin, one observer said those 2,764 voters more accurately reflected public sentiment.
“I can’t remember the last time we had this kind of turnout,” Willis remarked, referring to another election with a 4 percent voter response. “I wish more people would take as much interest in other local elections.”
Other officials agree the ballot is important, particularly state questions, although many people don’t bother with them in the voting booth, Carter County Election Board Secretary Joyce Harris said.
Election officials in Carter, Jefferson, Johnston, Marshall and Murray counties agree with Willis — issues attract voters.  Traditionally, local and county elections don’t get much attention from voters, or candidates. A lack of candidates is a growing problem in municipal and school board elections. Over the last two years, the schools in the six-county south central region have generated fewer than 10 challenged races. Only seven school district races were held this year due to a lack of contested races. Sixteen other school districts were spared the cost of the annual election.
Election costs can be a factor. Figuring ballot and staffing requirements for precinct polling places, Ardmore school district has the highest cost. The district paid $5,720 for the December 2006 school bond election. As the only schools in Murray County, Sulphur and Davis each pay almost $5,000 for a school district election. Sulphur’s last election bill was $4,816.36. By comparison, Madill’s tab for a 2001-02 bond vote was $750 in another two-school county. The district hasn’t had a contested board race in more than eight years.
Converted to the cost voters pay as taxpayers, Superintendent Gary Scott calculated the cost at $600 a vote when the district held its last ad valorem election approximately six years ago. Voter response was “extremely light.” Figured from the 3.66 percent voter response the $4,877.75 paid by the city of Ardmore for the March city commission race, it cost the city $11 per vote.
Election staffing costs are based on three precinct workers and ballot printing. The precinct inspector is paid $97, plus mileage. Two other precinct workers and the those hired to visit nursing homes are paid $87 each. Mail-in absentee and in-person absentee ballots are part of that cost.
Wilbert Wiggs, 221-6526
wilbert.wiggs@ardmoreite.com