Twelve Dollars is the price per absentee ballot paid out in Cares Act Funding, no-questions-asked, to NH towns. This direct association with cash for each absentee ballot “handled” amounts to irresponsible election-baiting and is inconsistent with Cares Act reimbursement methods.
We want to thank Rep. Juliet Harvey-Bolia for this Op-Ed. If you have an Op-Ed or LTE
you want us to consider, please submit it to skip@ or steve@granitegrok.com.
Typical funding consists of reimbursement for hard Covid-related costs such as equipment, – not labor. Municipalities have for months been denied reimbursement for most other town Covid-related labor needs such as the technical work needed to switch to Zoom-based meetings from traditional in-person town meetings. The unofficial Cares Act rule for recovering Covid related costs around town halls has been this: things may get reimbursed, but not labor.
Why not pay towns per population for their Covid-related election expenses and avoid allegations? Cares Act funding to-date has been allocated in broad strokes by town size, or perhaps by number of Covid cases, but in this case, the funding appears to be rewarding a specific behavior: voting by absentee ballot. This activity may effectively incentivize absentee ballots in future elections.
Towns already pay their clerks’ good salaries in exchange for organizing fair elections. We don’t need cash to be thrown at the clerk’s office for a certain type of ballot.
Here is the link to the SOS page and some screenshots from the webinar on how to get this money.
Rep. Juliet Harvey-Bolia
Tilton, NH
