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Miami vote was smooth but pricy
Miami-Dade County's election went well, but was one of the nation's most expensive, the Center for Democracy says.
©Associated Press
November 24, 2002
MIAMI -- The independent monitor Miami-Dade County hired to assess its performance in this month's election says the process was well run but cost twice as much as normal.
"The financial and human resources applied to the Nov. 5 election made the election one of the most expensive per voter in the United States," the Center for Democracy said in its final report, released Friday.
On Election Day, Miami-Dade mobilized nearly 3,500 county employees, including police, to ensure voters could cast their ballots without delay. That cost the county an estimated $3-million, double the normal expense.
The Washington, D.C.-based center, which charged the county $92,188, said Miami-Dade could save money by better training elections staff and working with the manufacturer of its touch screen voting machines to ensure the devices are set up efficiently.
Setting up the machines should take an hour to 90 minutes, but took four to five hours on average the night before the election, the report said.
County commissioners hired the nonpartisan center, which previously had only observed foreign elections, after the Sept. 10 primary. In that election, problems with new machines and poll worker training -- particularly in Miami-Dade and Broward counties -- delayed results for the Democratic gubernatorial primary for a week.
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