Sherwood foots bill for election
By Jeremy Peppas
LITTLE ROCK — The Pulaski County Election Commission put on the vote Tuesday in Gravel Ridge and Sherwood, but it is Sherwood paying the bill.
“They will pay for it all,” Election Commission Director Susan Inman said of Sherwood.
“Jacksonville’s, the first election, that one was a free ride. It was paid for by the state since it was rolled in with the presidential primary.
But we’ll be billing Sherwood for the one on Tuesday.” Special elections aren’t cheap either.
“We had two special elections last year, and they cost $19,000 and $18,000,” Sherwood Mayor Virginia Hillman said. “That’s one of the things you know going into it. It is going to cost some money. Special elections, you had seven polling places in Sherwood and then two more in Gravel Ridge. And you have five or six people working each polling place, that all adds up.” While Inman didn’t have the precise cost of Tuesday’s vote, she did have something to compare it to.
“Their last special election, it was held July 10,” Inman said. “We billed them $19,802.54 for it, and I think that would be in line with this last election.”It means that if Inman is correct, Sherwood paid roughly $9.20 for each of the 2,152 ballots cast on Tuesday, but the third vote shouldn’t be as expensive.
“We won’t have as many polling places,” Inman said. “That is a significant expense reduction, and the plan to is to consolidate polling places.” In a typical election in Gravel Ridge, three polling places would be available, but not this time.
“The plan is to have one,” Inman said.
“The bulk of the voters all live in the same district.” The single polling place would be the First Baptist Church in Gravel Ridge.
Sherwood won’t shoulder the cost of the third election alone, though.
“It will be evenly split between the two cities,” Inman said. “The third election, we are going to divide it and bill each city.” This is the first time Pulaski County has had a third vote on annexation, and Inman couldn’t give an estimate on the expense of the vote.
Inman added that the plan was to also provide for early voting in the third election, but that the details were still being worked out.
- jpeppas @arkansasonline.com
This article was published Sunday, March 16, 2008.
Three Rivers, Pages 117 on 03/16/2008
