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The Pierce County Council this afternoon rejected a call to scrap poll voting this year to save money.
By a unanimous vote, the council rejected Auditor Jan Shabro’s proposal to conduct the August primary and November general elections exclusively by mail.
The plan would have saved Shabro’s office nearly $144,000 at a time when the county is cutting costs to balance its budget.
But council members said they want Shabro to search elsewhere for budget savings, citing the popularity of poll voting with many of their constituents.
“Thousands of voters have said they want to go to the polls in Pierce County,” said Chairman Roger Bush, R-Graham. “It’s an investment in democracy as we’ve practiced it in Pierce County for 100 years.”
Like other county departments, the auditor’s office is scrambling to cut costs. The council recently approved $8 million in spending cuts and other budget adjustments. More are expected this summer as sales tax and other revenues plummet. And 2010 looks even worse.
Shabro said she was trying to save money while preserving jobs in her office. She already has cut more than $326,000 from her budget and is looking for ways to trim more.
Shabro proposed scrapping poll voting for this year only, arguing that turnout would be low in off-year elections.
She found some sympathy on the council. Councilman Dick Muri, R-Steilacoom, proposed meeting Shabro halfway by eliminating poll voting for the August primary but keeping the polls open for the November general election. That proposal would have saved the auditor about $72,000.
But Muri’s proposed amendment failed on a 3-4 vote. And no council member supported eliminating poll voting at both elections.
One reason: they didn’t want to give ammunition to a Legislature that this spring considered forcing Pierce County to close its polls. Council members said it could give that failed legislation new life in 2010 if the council agreed to temporarily suspend poll voting this year.
“It would be a bad message to send to anybody in Olympia,” said Councilwoman Joyce McDonald, R-Puyallup.
The vote leaves Shabro searching for other ways to balance her budget.
“We’ll just have to keep looking,” she said. “There’s not too many more cuts we can make before I have to start laying people off.”
