Brown likely to call special election - voting and budget issues loom

Richard Winger, editor of Ballot Access News, says it is likely that Governor Brown will call a special election in June of this year for votes on proposed tax and budget questions.

Statewide, a special election can cost in excess of 100 million dollars. In Fresno County, according to County Clerk Victor Salazar, the cost of a special election is approximately 1.5 million dollars.

Though counties have been reimbursed for the costs associated with conducting a special election, the wait can be a long one. For the last statewide special election, held on May 19, 2009, Fresno County was only recently reimbursed by the State of California—leaving a huge hole in the budget of the Clerk's office for more than a year.

Yet there is no guarantee that Fresno County will get any money at all for the next special election. There is no mandate to reimburse counties for these elections and, given the current budget situation, it is uncertain whether Governor Brown's anticipated call for an election will be accompanied by a promise to pay for it.

In an effort to reduce costs, some California counties are looking at eliminating polling places in favor of an all vote-by-mail process for special elections. In Humboldt County, for instance, the Registrar of Voters is considering asking the Board of Supervisors to allow her to conduct all future special elections in this manner.

Though he didn't indicate whether he may approach the Fresno County Board of Supervisors with a similar proposal, Mr. Salazar certainly is a strong advocate of voting by mail. He says that voting by mail is certainly the "easiest" way to vote with one's polling place as close as the mailbox.

With reductions in the number of locations available for people to vote on election day, many elected officials are looking at different ways to conduct elections—voting by mail being one option. Unfortunately, access to the ballot box is now looked upon as a budget issue rather than an integral part of a democratic process.