A Republic If You Can Afford It : How Much Does it Cost to Administer Elections?

This Element explores election costs in 48 states, revealing wide variation across the country. It examines the impact of economic events like the Great Recession on spending, and the relationship between spending and election administration outcomes. It also finds a correlation between voters' confidence and perceptions of election fraud.

The cost of administering elections is an importantly understudied area in election science. This book reports election costs in 48 out of 50 states. It discusses the challenges and opportunities of collecting local election costs. The book then presents the wide variation in cost across the country with the lowest spending states spending a little over $2 per voter and the highest spending almost $20 per voter. The amounts being spent in the state are also examined over the election time period of 2008 – 2016. Economic events like the Great Recession had predictable effects on lowering spending on elections but the patterns are not the same across the different regions of the country. The relationship between spending and election administration outcomes is also explored and finds that the voters'' confidence and perceptions of fraud in elections is associated with the amount spent on election administration.