What should happen before Newsom’s special election for redistribution

From Maya K. MillerCalmness

This story was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

Calling state special elections sounds simply in theory. But fulfilling one with less than 75 days of notice? As an employee of the California County Election said, this is a “Hercules” effort.

California voting officials are fighting behind the scenes to prepare for special election rules. Gavin Newsom He wants this November on his proposal to Rewind state congress areasS But in order to do this, Newsom needs voters to approve an initiative to vote on special elections for an extraordinary year, which the state is not yet officially approved and planned.

The Democrats want the offered California cards to compensate for the efforts of President Donald Trump and Republicans to arrange the next elections in Congress in favor of GOP by extracting more Republican places from the Reds such as Texas, Florida and Missouri.

Only Newsom released his offered cards At the end of last week, the state’s deputies, who just returned from a one-month summer indentation, were a difficult time from Friday to green light in the voting language in front of the voters on time for November 4 elections.

District election staff are in a hurry as if the election is happening so that they can make sure they lock everything from sellers to print their ballots, places for voting centers and electoral workers, to serve these pollings, come on November 4. They insist in hard the state to cover the huge costs of unplanned special elections, and some of them have no additional appropriation, they may need to be reduced to life safety and some of them were not without additional.

“It is difficult for us, only in regular elections, like a smaller rural district,” says Juan Pablo Cervantes, secretary of the voters for Humboldt County, who has Just over 85,000 registered votersS Usually, Cervantes and his staff have at least five months to reach voting, hiring and purchase all machines, pens and newsletters for government elections.

“This is usually a Hercules effort on its own,” Cervantes said.

Crazy dash to find ballots and voting centers

One of the biggest challenges for the counties is to arrange suppliers to print sufficient ballots-for a single lack of voting for each registered voter in the country, as well as a sufficient number to keep a vote on the site of polling stations. California’s Secretary of State has only Approved seven suppliers to print newslettersWithout incorporating Orange County, which manages its own printing facility.

The other two logistics obstacles provide enough sites to serve as voting centers, and hiring and training the staff to work.

Shortly after Newsom said on July 31 that he would call special elections, the Orange County Secretary of the voters Bob Page gathered his staff for an emergency planning meeting. He instructs them to identify which consumables are needed to order as soon as possible, prioritizing products such as voting, voting bags and toner for their voting printers – which may not arrive on time to comply with the deadlines if they wait for the special confirmation of special elections.

If the governor eventually abandons his plan, the Orange County will also be able to use these materials in the June primary election next year, minimizing the potential taxpayer waste.

“I had to decide that I couldn’t wait until August 22 to make sure I could withdraw this,” Paige said. “I do not want to be in a position where my county does not fail in any way to hold free and honest choices.”

The county also began sending an email to people with previous experience as electoral workers to consider the potential interest in working at a voting center during the special election.

The last special elections in California

California last had short -lived, special elections all year round in September 2021 when Newsom won an attempt to try Remember it from the officeS

But since the download campaign was signed by a signature and not ordered by the state legislative body, Paige said the counties had very early warning signs to help them prepare.

“We knew when there were enough signatures to request the download election,” Paige said. “We were very engaged when the legislature set ideas to try to shorten the timeline and make the download elections in August of the same year, not September.”

Even when the legislature removed the fine imprint of when the elections would be held, the district registrars brought their suppliers to testify that they did not have enough paper to print ballots on time for the election to recall August. The date was eventually set for September 14th.

How much will it cost?

The legislature and the Ministry of Finance have not yet provided official expenses for the costs of special elections across the country, but experts say that given inflation, the special election on November 4 will almost certainly exceed the price of withdrawal.

During this effort in 2021, the state sent more than $ 240 million and an additional $ 35 million to the State Election Administration Service. In the end, the competition costs less than planned – about $ 200 million, with the expenses of the counties a total of just over $ 174 million.

NEWSOM has repeatedly promised that the state would cover the steep costs that counties would incur to administer unplanned state -of -the -art offen elections throughout the year. However, in the absence of official state numbers, district officers and even Republicans from Assembly have released their own assessments. Thehe GOP CAUCUS budget analysis The estimated competition across the country will cost taxpayers $ 235.5 million.

The forecast that the costs of Orange County will land somewhere between $ 11.2 million to $ 12.7 million, depending on whether the voting and district voting guide will fit in the same envelope or should be sent separately. Riverside County Registrar Designed over $ 15 million expensesand the County Freshno laughed in at least $ 4 million in unharmed expenses.

The counties have asked state leaders to provide them with money in front, not to refund them after the election.

“The additional costs linked to special elections throughout the country would fall almost entirely to the counties – imposing significant and unfinanced financial burden on already strained local budgets,” writes the California State Association of Counts, which represents the district supervisors, in partnership with its subsidiary.

HD Palmer, a spokesman for the Ministry of Finance, said that legislation It will provide the money to the counties in advance, as it did in 2021 before the evidence of the governor, although the department has not yet determined the exact amount ..

“California will pay for it,” Newsom told a press conference last week, rejecting fears from the county registrars about how they would allow themselves to administer the election as “deeply dishonest.”

“There is no price for democracy,” Newsom said.

The governor also said that, unlike the download elections, several counties are already planning to hold local offspring elections and can add the issue of redistribution to the existing vote. As of Monday, only 21 counties are referred to as elections scheduled for November 4, according to The Secretary of State’s websiteS

But Cervantes, who estimates that his county will bear at least $ 700,000 additional costs, stressed that this makes a “huge difference”, whether the state pays in advance or requires the counties to submit costs for recovery. His suppliers will not allow him to postpone the payment until he receives the state’s check in the mail.

Cervantes noted that the districts are paying for the election administration of the same pot money, which finances the sheriff’s departments, district prisons and district prosecutors, as well as some local efforts to prevent fire. That is why it is so important for the state to cover the costs, he argues.

“You’re talking about downloading MPs from the street. You’re talking about reducing social services. Like, it’s a zero -sum game,” Cervantes said. “If I have to spend that money, then other departments will not be able to.”

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.