The Government Accountability Board revealed the most recent general and presidential elections cost the state $10 million, the most of any statewide election in 2012 and also outlined major voting statistics from Wisconsin’s 2012 elections in a report Tuesday.
The Board used election information from all 1,851 state municipalities to compile data on election administration costs, number of voters and ballots cast as well as the number of voters who registered on Election Day.
The majority of the elections’ costs came from paying election staff wages and printing ballots, according to the report. Staff wages, about $93.80 per person, accounted for approximately $6.2 million of the expenditures, while ballot printing cost the state $1.4 million.
As a comparison, the controversial 2012 Recall election, which set Gov. Scott Walker against Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in a rematch of Walker’s first gubernatorial victory, cost the state about $7.2 million.
The report also found a significant decrease in same-day voter registration, from 15 percent in 2008 to 11 percent in the most recent 2012 elections.
Kevin Kennedy, Wisconsin’s chief election official, said in the report the drop in Election Day registration is not entirely surprising, as there were more statewide elections in 2012 than in past years.
“The two statewide special elections in the spring of 2012 gave voters more opportunities to register, which may have decreased the number of Election Day registrations in November,” Kennedy said in the report.
The Board has limited information on the cost of past state elections because it has only required election spending reports since April 2012 but has kept records of voter turnout in the state since 1948.
According to the GAB, the 2012 voter turnout barely surpassed the 2008 turnout, 70 percent to 69 percent.
The overall cost for all statewide elections in 2012 was about $37 million, according to Michael Haas, the GAB’s Elections Division Administrator. He said the overall cost assessment will be useful as the Board plans for future elections.
“We appreciate the work of local election officials in reporting the data, which is useful for evaluating election administration and for policymakers and the public,” Haas said.
