Who Will Run the 2016 Town of Palm Beach Election?

With the 2016 Town of Palm Beach election cycle quickly approaching, it is important to have a solid plan in place for administering ballots and counting votes. However, the elected officials for the Town of Palm Beach have a dilemma on their hands as far as who they are going to use to run the election.

Typically, the Town’s Municipal elections are administered through the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections  Susan Bucher. When this is the case, the election cycle runs its normal month long course and costs the Town of Palm Beach roughly $30,000. For the 2016 Town of Palm Beach election, it would cost even less because Bucher’s office is already running the March 15^th primary on the same day as the Town of Palm Beach election. In turn, the election costs would only be the cost of the ballots for the Town of Palm Beach’s Municipal election.

Town of Palm Beach Election

If the Town chooses to go with a self- administered election, they will be looking at a costly, long haul of an election cycle this go around. When we asked the Town of Palm Beach staff about the cost and time difference between the two options, they replied, “A truly standalone election would cost approximately $69,000,” versus the average $30,000 election. “If we change our date to the PPP, then the cost for 2016 would be approximately $25,400.” They went on the say, “Future years would cost less as we would not have all of the same first-time expenses.” Time wise, “it will take teams of counters approximately three hours to manually count the ballot,” says Town Clerk Susan Owens.

Another major concern that has been brought up is in regards to how the extra costs for a self- administered election will be covered. Owens clarified that the costs “have already been accounted for in the 2015- 2016 fiscal year budget.”

The town staff will discuss this pressing issue at the October 13^th meeting and make their final decision.