Collaboration on Elections to Reduce County and Municipal Long-Term Costs

The 2015 Recommended Budget includes an intergovernmental initiative that will enhance collaboration, improve election night reporting, and reduce taxpayer costs at the County and Municipal levels. An appropriation of $1,845,000 is included for the purchase new voting tabulator machines for each municipality. Under the proposed agreement, Municipalities would reimburse the County for 30% of the election machine costs. The County would recover its initial investment and save additional money over a 12-year period through reduced election costs by utilizing the City of Milwaukee’s Election Commission to program the machines.

By state law, Milwaukee County is responsible for the cost of programming voting machines for all elections except municipal elections. Under the current service model, the County would pay an estimated $2,000,000 per 4-year election cycle on programming. As part of the intergovernmental agreement, the City of Milwaukee will provide programming services for the County and all 18 municipalities. As the City of Milwaukee will only charge the actual cost of providing the service, the County and all municipalities will see cost savings. The following chart shows the projected net fiscal impact of the proposed initiative.

The initial investment in election machines will be recouped within the first 4-year election cycle, leading to over $3 million in net savings for the County over the next three 4-year election cycles. Each municipality will also see savings on election programming costs by utilizing the City of Milwaukee’s services.

The full 2015 Recommended Budget Narrative for Elections can be accessed here. The narrative for the election machine capital project can be found on page 187 of this document.