State Auditor Suzanne Bump determined Tuesday that some of the costs involved in last November’s early voting program should have been paid for by the state instead of individual cities and towns.
Two municipalities, Woburn and Oxford petitioned the auditor to decide whether keeping polling areas open during the days before the election were a burden on municipalities and therefore an unfunded mandate from the state.
“The early voting law certainly is to be regarded a success. It did, however, mandate new procedures for clerks. Some of these should be paid for by the state, not municipalities according to the Local Mandate Law,” Bump said in a statement.
Secretary of State William Galvin, the state’s top elections official, told WGBH News that the ruling means the state is going to have to sort out a way to pay for municipalities to hold early voting hours before next year’s state election.
“The bottom line is, whatever it is, we’re going to bear. We’re certainly not going to give up early voting. It was a great success. I think it was very helpful to people. But, we’re going to have to figure out exactly how best to spend the money and the Legislature’s going to have to give us what we need to do it,” Galvin said.
The state’s early voting law, used for the first time last November, called on cities and towns to provide sufficient staffing while polls were open. Woburn reported spending $5,446 to make that happen and Oxford says they had to spend almost $1,500.
Municipalities can petition Bump’s office to determine if a state requirement without sufficient funding is a burdensome unfunded mandate.
