MOUNT VERNON — Knox County Board of Elections has requested an additional $143,450 for its general budget, citing the upcoming general election and staffing needs.
The news came at Tuesday’s county commissioner’s meeting–a week before the general election.
Commissioners are expected to approve the budget increase at Thursday’s 10 a.m. meeting.
Approximately $20,000 would be used for ballot printing, software and having a consultant on hand during election day to troubleshoot potential errors.
Chair Board member Adam Gilson said the board of elections went through a significant staffing change at the beginning of the year, noting the five current permanent staff members aren’t the same as last year. This meant “we ran into some expenditures that weren’t factored into the 2023 appropriation,” Gilson said.
The Knox County Board of Elections 2023 appropriation budget is $685,253.58, according to County Administrator Jason Booth. Of the total, $269,000.00 is allocated for salary employees–of which there are five.
When those positions were vacant, Gilson and others decided to increase pay in hopes of retention. The board also relied on seasonal workers to get through this period, which brought additional expenses.
Board of Elections Director Jim Blazer was asked to work on a strategic staffing plan this year to find ways of prioritizing staff retention, redundancy of staff and cross-training. “This year was an all-hands-on-deck situation,” Glazer said.
“(We) needed an additional employee to help ‘day by day’ operations.”
The additional employee was hired full-time as an election administrator on Oct. 2, Blazer said. They are responsible for making sure every polling location is ADA-compliant, handles security and the tracking of voting equipment, among other roles.
Blaze noted the board has four seasonal employees. Blaze also said this year’s three-election cycle (May, August and November) has layered elections upon one another, keeping seasonal employees on staff, unlike typical years.
Blazer said Wednesday in an interview with Knox Pages that adding the fifth full-time employee will stabilize operations so “we’re not having those duties done by temporary employees who need training because they’re relatively new.”
Election workload and complexity are increasing, Gilson said.
Voter turnout is also increasing with May’s election having a 6.73% turnout; August’s 41.57% turnout. Blazer said the board anticipates between a high 50-60% turnout for the November election.