Fulton County revises municipal election charges

By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com

ATLANTA — Fulton County has revised its estimated charge to cities for operating municipal elections this fall, complicating a move by some cities to consider running their own polling.

In a split vote, the County Commission passed a resolution Feb. 1 to budget the same amount of money for municipal elections as it did in 2021, $5.2 million, plus an extra 10 percent for contingencies.

To ensure the county is not subsidizing cities the costs for running the election, the resolution calls for charging them a percentage of the total estimated cost the county anticipates spending to manage the November polling. The new formula, adopted by the County Commission in a split vote, replaces the old system used in 2019 and 2021 in which cities were charged a fixed rate of $2.96 per registered voter.

It means that while the cities will likely pay more than they did in 2021 for county-operated elections, they won’t pay as much as county election officials had proposed earlier this year.

The $5.2 million budget cap, proposed by Commissioner Bob Ellis, received pushback from other commissioners and County Manager Dick Anderson, who noted rising inflation over the past couple years.

But Ellis’ proposal was based on the grounds of a “good faith effort” to present cities a more accurate cost, “as opposed to something new, which appears to be, for lack of a better term, a little bit of a, ‘Go away, go do it yourself.’”

The Fulton County Board of Registrations and Elections recently encouraged cities to conduct their own municipal elections. The board estimated the charge the county would impose for running the polling would be more than triple its bill for running the 2021 elections.

The preference for a percentagebased cost system stems from the 2021 elections cycle, when Fulton County went in the hole $2.77 million by subsidizing city elections because of a county-wide referendum on the ballot.

It cost the county $6.39 per registered voter to run the 2021 election. The cities paid $2.96 per registered voter, leaving the county to pay the difference.

With the newly adopted resolution, cities that choose to stick with the county will pay a percentage of each year’s election budget and use the number of registered voters to calculate cost.

This year, cities face a price based on $5.2 million the county has budgeted for general municipal elections, plus the 10 percent contingency.

The cost per registered voter the county wants to charge cities has fluctuated in recent months. In December, Fulton County estimated $11.48. And in January, the cost was lowered to $9.38. Interim Elections Director Nadine Williams said the department will continue to evaluate processes for more cost reduction.

Because the county does not profit from municipal elections, any excess charged to cities would be refunded, Ellis said.

New considerations

Following the lead of Milton, which decided to break away from Fulton County election control in December, other North Fulton cities have begun to forge their own path to self-administer elections in recent weeks.

In December, the Milton City Council elected to move forward with selfoperated elections after its elections committee, tasked with studying the feasibility of the project, estimated tens of thousands of dollars in savings. The same committee recommended exclusively using paper ballots, different from the state-regulated voting machines Fulton County is required to use.

While Johns Creek and Roswell have yet to take official action, the Alpharetta City Council approved a city elections superintendent at its Jan. 23 meeting in anticipation of setting up its own municipal election apparatus.

An intergovernmental agreement, drafted over the past couple of weeks, would set up a regional elections superintendent to oversee municipal elections in several North Fulton County cities, including Milton, Alpharetta, Roswell, Johns Creek and Mountain Park. It outlines that the cost for the elections superintendent would be split among the cities and paid to Milton.

However, it does not impose details of how elections will be conducted, leaving each city to adopt its own process.

With the Feb. 1 County Commission vote, the cities will need to calculate their own expenses to determine whether local control is worth pursuing.

One city official, who has been following the topic closely, did her own estimate based on the county’s latest proposal. Using the 8 percent allocated to its city, Johns Creek Councilwoman Erin Elwood said election cost would be around $414,000. Cost per registered voter would be around $6.78, excluding the 10 percent overage that was approved.

County Commissioner Dana Barrett said municipalities should be aware that Fulton County is required to run municipal elections when there’s a county-wide referendum on the ballot.

“They may do it, doing all that planning, and taking on all of that cost to only use their own process once every four, six, eight years,” Barret said. “You never know, depending on referendums.”

Originally given a March 1 deadline, the cities now have until March 31 to either sign on with the county or go it on their own.

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