The Oct. 7 election to recall Gov. Gray Davis is expected to
carry an estimated price tag of $100,000 for San Benito County.
County Clerk John Hodges said local government will have to dig
deep to pay its portion of the $25 million to $40 million bill that
the statewide election will cost.
The Oct. 7 election to recall Gov. Gray Davis is expected to carry an estimated price tag of $100,000 for San Benito County.
County Clerk John Hodges said local government will have to dig deep to pay its portion of the $25 million to $40 million bill that the statewide election will cost.
“The money for the election will probably have to come from the county’s General Fund,” he said. “We will probably have to wait two to three years to be reimbursed by the state.”
With just 10 weeks to go before the recall election, Hodges said county elections officials are scrambling to come up with places to set up polling booths.
“Instead of using the usual polling places, we may want to consolidate and use a few sites with larger capacity,” Hodges said.
One such venue may include voting booths in the newly renovated Veterans Memorial Building.
The move to possibly consolidate polling sites has much to do with an expected low voter turnout. According to county statistics, just over 47 percent of the county’s 23,000 registered voters – 11,000 – went to the polls in November 2002.
Approximately 5,000 county voters cast their ballot for Republican candidate Bill Simon, while about 6,000 voted for Davis, according to county statistics.
Hodges said the $100,000 estimate for the election could have gone even higher if the county had added the San Benito County Growth Control Initiative to the special election ballot.
County Counsel Karen Forcum said because the Board of Supervisors has set the date for the vote on the initiative for the March 2, 2004 primaries, the initiative will not be moved to the Oct. 7 date.
By keeping the initiative on the March ballot, local voters will have more time to examine and make decisions about the controversial slow-growth measure.
Backers of the recall drive blame Davis for California’s economic downturn and the state’s energy crisis. Detractors say he drove jobs from the state and lied about the size of the budget deficit to win re-election in November.
Some analysts, however, said Davis is the victim of voter wrath over circumstances at least partly beyond his control.
“There’s an old story in politics: When things are going well, the person at the top gets disproportionate credit, and when things are going badly the person at the top gets disproportionate blame,” said Larry Gerston, a political scientist at San Jose State University.
To enter the recall race, candidates must be a California resident; submit signatures from 65 registered voters of their party and pay $3,500, or turn in 10,000 signatures in lieu of the filing fee.
