A number of people have asked about the costs of doing a discovery recount.  The answer for Champaign County, as well as any other county, is well…it depends.

A petitioner for a discovery recount can ask to examine up to 29 precincts in Champaign County at a cost of $290.  In a Republican contest, that would allow them to examine up to 7,602 ballots cast for Governor.  If the only thing they do is look at each ballot cast, we’d about break even.

But they’re entitled to do much more.  If they want us to test each vote tabulator, add about $300.  If they want us to run each of those ballots through the machines again, add about $500.  If they want to just look at the applications for those 7,602 voters, add another $300.  Then looking at other miscellaneous items, maybe another $100.

So my guess it costs anywhere from $300 (break even for our county) to $1500 ($1200 for our county).  That is based on a single staff person assisting me and me working for “free”.  If you actually counted my salary in there, those costs would about triple.   Under that scenario, Champaign County’s costs would be anywhere from $600 to $4200.

Champaign County had about 2% of the vote in this primary election.  Extrapolating that over the entire state gives a VERY rough estimate of the statewide costs.

Important note!  This is just discovery, not the costs for an election contest.  I don’t even want to go there yet.

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