WMBFNews.com | Myrtle Beach/Florence, SC | News, Weather, SportsExpenses pile up during election season

Expenses pile up during election season

By Jennifer Grove - bio | email

MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) - With expenses like poll worker pay, printing, and polling machine rent, election day comes with a price tag.

In Myrtle Beach, Larry Stafford, who manned the polls Tuesday, says he enjoys helping to run the polls because it allows him to meet a wide variety of people. Even though the city will be sending him a check for his work he says he does not do it for the money.

"It helps to pick up a few extra bucks, but the pay is not that great," he said. "You do it more as a civic duty to pay back a little bit than you do it for the money."

City spokesman Mark Kruea says elections mean a long 12 hour or more day for the poll workers.

"[We're] feeding them some donuts for breakfast and some kind of lunch because they're stuck there at the polls all day," Kruea said. "Paying them for the service they perform... there is some cost attached to it."

The cost, he says, is $60 per day for poll workers and $120 for the clerks like Stafford who manage each poll.

"It's actually a fairly reasonable expense for the result that you get," Kruea commented.

Stafford says he would be surprised if someone put in the long hours just for the cash because it pays very little for the amount of time and effort required.

When it is all said and done, the bill for the 2009 elections will run unto the thousands, according to the city. Kruea says the estimate is between $10,000 and $15,000 for both the general election and the runoff. He says that is down from about $17,000 in 2005. Kruea says that number is lower in part because the city did not pay for a consultant to organize the election this year and training classes were dropped for poll workers since they all had previous election experience with the county.

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