The Aug. 19 primary election will cost Clallam County about $78,000 more than expected.
Auditor Patty Rosand told the Clallam County commissioners this week that most of the additional costs were due to ballot additions that came after the budget for the primary election was finalized last December.
Those additions were two ballot inserts — one mandated by the state explaining the Top 2 primary system and a notice to disabled voters, and the Olympic Medical Center tax levy lid lift.
They amounted to $63,000 in additional printing costs.
“It’s very difficult to foresee ahead of time” what is going to be on the ballot, said Stanton Creasey, county chief deputy accountant.
“It’s unpredictable.”
The cost of printing for the primary election was contracted to K&H Printers from Everett at $66,478.77.
The county commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved a $39,468.75 contract with K&H for printing the Nov. 4 general election ballots.
Rosand said the budget for each election is determined by using data from past elections and projecting the size of election that is expected.
As in Clallam County, the Top 2 primary was introduced after the Jefferson County Auditor’s Office had finalized a budget for this year’s elections.
But in Jefferson County, Auditor Donna Eldridge said, the Top 2 primary — in which the two top vote-getters advance to the general election — actually saved the county about $40,000.
Due to Jefferson County’s ballot tabulating machine, Eldridge said the county had to previously print three separate ballots for the old pick-a-party primary.
There was a ballot for the Democrats, one for Republicans and one for nonpartisan races.
Eldridge said the tabulating machine did not have the ability to consolidate the different party candidates into one ballot.
The Top 2 primary election introduced in August allowed the county to forego party identification as a voting category and provide only one ballot for voters.
Eldridge said Jefferson County spent about $2.97 per registered voter in the primary, compared with $3.94 in the 2006 primary.
