The Marshall County Election Board agreed to continue charging candidates for office for walking lists of registered voters.
The walking list is often used during door-to-door campaigning or for mailers during election season. The cost for a disc containing voter registration information was previously set at $50 in Marshall County. Whether that cost was still reasonable was under discussion during Tuesday morning’s meeting.
Marshall County Clerk Debbie Vandemark says the matter came up after candidates began making requests.
“I started looking back through some previous minutes,” says Vandemark. “In 2010, the Election Board reviewed the cost of computerized data to individuals requesting copies of the voter list.”
Large amounts of data are included in the walking lists that can result it hundreds of pages if printed.
According to Marshall County ordinance, the cost to print is 10-cents per page. That means using a disc for the information could be more cost effective.
Vandemark says it’s also difficult to e-mail the files.
“The files are so large that it’s very difficult to e-mail that much data,” says Vandemark.
Alternatives to paying for discs such as using information stored on a website for candidates to access were also considered. Marshall County must wait until an E-Poll book demonstration to answer that question.
Party officials present also said that if the two major parties purchased the disc and made copies for each of their candidates, the cost would remain $50. That expense was approved by the Election Board, unanimously.
