DIXON – At the Lee County Board Executive Committee meeting last Thursday, officials discussed the cost of unused mail in ballots and rising expenses tied to the permanent vote by mail system. Lee County Clerk and Recorder Nancy Petersen said the county sent about 1000 ballots and roughly 416 were never returned, costing about $8.50 each in printing, envelopes, ink, and postage.
Petersen explained the process, saying, “So when you request a vote-by-mail ballot, there is actually four envelopes that are involved in that vote-by-mail ballot process. So you have four envelopes, which have four labels on them. There’s also the postage that is required to send those out, which runs over about a dollar and five cents. And then again, we’ve got the cost of the ink. Also, then there’s the amount of time that my employees put into putting those four envelopes together, making sure we have the right label on there. And then we’re in the process then of printing the ballot that this person has requested, which actually again is hard stock paper. And then it also has colored ink on there.”
She also encouraged residents to use early in person voting instead of mail ballots or they can opt out of permanent vote by mail if they choose.