New Study: Modernizing Our Voter Registration System Could Eliminate Millions in Wasteful Spending

Media Contacts

CoPIRG

Denver – A new CoPIRG Foundation study  estimated that over $33,467,910.00 of public money from 100 sample counties around the country was spent on simple registration implementation and error-correction issues in 2008.  Colorado counties surveyed included Denver, Mesa and Park.

That boils down to more than $86,977.00 of the elections budget in counties with populations fewer than 50,000, over $248,091.00 in counties of 50,000 to 200,000 people, and $1,079,610.00 in jurisdictions of 200,000 to 1,000,000 people.

“Too much time, effort, and money is spent at the local level reacting to and paying for our paper-driven, mistake-riddled registration process. Our system creates challenges for local officials and wastes taxpayer dollars,” says Danny Katz, CoPIRG’s State Director.

Colorado local election officials should be able to use the funds that our counties allot for the actual administration of elections, rather than for the endless data-entry and error correction processes created by our current registration system.

The CoPIRG Foundation recommends implementing a modernized automatic registration system to help eliminate some of the burdens local officials bear and to reallocate funds to enable local officials to more effectively administer our elections.   

Katz added, “It is time to put these taxpayer dollars into activities that promote our democracy instead of into entering registration forms.”