Oakland County Commissioners Call for Reimbursement of Special Election Costs

The Oakland County Board of Commissioners is asking Governor Snyder to reimburse local communities for the $650,000 cost of holding a special election to fill former U.S. Representative Thaddeus McCotter's seat, . 

Municipalities in Michigan's 11th Congressional District must hold a special primary on Sept. 5 to narrow down the field of candidates. Voters will cast their ballot for the final winner on Nov. 6 to serve the remainder McCotter's term, which ends in December. 

>>MORE:

This past Thursday, the commissioners voted 22-2 to ask to state to reimburse the costs of holding a special election. They join Oakland County Clerk Bill Bullard, Jr., who has also made this request of the state.

Oakland County Commissioner Kathy Crawford, who represents Novi and part of Northville, introduced the resolution. She said that the special election is a burden on local communities.

"I know it's an unexpected expenditure for the state, as well, but municipalities are really hard-pressed, especially in this hard economic times. They're counting every penny. It's more of a drain on small communities," she said.

Crawford said she doesn't know if the state will answer the request, but that it is not unprecedented and you never know until you ask.

"I thought, nothing ventured, nothing gained," she said.

Special election causes confusion, work for Novi

In Novi, the special election is estimated to cost $30,000, according to City Clerk Maryanne Cornelius.

The special election has also caused a lot of extra work for the department. Cornelius said the department usually takes three months to prepare for an election, but that time was cut down to one month to prepare for the special primary on Sept. 5, since the department couldn't get started until after the regular primary on Aug. 7.

"We've had to do everything we would normally do in that period and just ramp it up and get as much done as possible in the four weeks time since we do not have the luxury of more time," Cornelius said.

She added that the special election has caused a lot of confusion and the office gets a lot of questions about it. She said people do not understand the difference in the two primaries, and that turnout for Sept. 5 is likely to be low.

"I will be surprised if it's as high as 12 percent," she said.