The Hamilton County Commission likely will pay $73,228 to print ballots for the Aug. 7 elections, including about 216,000 ballots that must be reprinted after their initial versions had mistakes.
At a meeting today, the County Commission set the ballot-cost item on its agenda for its meeting on Aug. 6. The ballots already have been ordered and are being printed.
Last month, county election officials had to reprint 140,000 ballots for the county’s Aug. 7 election after the U.S. Senate race was omitted from both Democratic and Republican ballots. Officials then discovered they had to reprint about 50,000 GOP ballots because the name of Teresa Sheppard of Luttrell, Tenn., a primary challenger to U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., accidentally was left off during the first reprinting.
At the time of the printing error, county Election Administrator Bud Knowles said paper ballots cost about 17 or 18 cents apiece. At that rate, the 50,000 ballots would cost between $8,500 and $9,000 and 140,000 ballots would cost between $23,800 and $25,200.
According to an invoice attached to today’s resolution, the Mid-West Printing Co. of Sapulpa, Okla., reprinted all 71,500 GOP ballots for a total of $16,502.50. The second print run for the 140,000 ballots amounted to $22,936.50, according to the invoice.
The print run of the original ballots cost $30,445.50.
With freight costs, the total money spent on Aug. 7 election ballots will total $73,228.01, records show.
For complete coverage, read tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press.
If any of the "inaccurate ballots" were used by early voters, the vote count will be inaccurate. According to a quote published in the www.chattanoogan.com, Bud Knowels stated that some early voters had cast their votes on the inaccurate ballots. The number of "inaccurate ballots" totaled 3030. If this is the case, the 3030 re-votes should take place to reflect an accurate vote count; and the first 3030 original "inaccurate ballots" should be replaced with 3030 revised "accurate and complete ballots" that now, apparently exist.
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