The Pulaski County Election Board passed a resolution Monday officially declaring that there will be no primary election there this year.
“There are only two municipalities affected by the 2019 election,” Clerk JoLynn Behny told the county commissioners Monday. “The Town of Medaryville has no contested races, and the Town of Monterey has chosen to hold a convention. So there is no need for us to incur the cost of having a 2019 primary election. We did some checking of the budget, and we are in line to save approximately $11,600 of what was put into the 2019 election budget.”
The election board had already voted not to hold a primary last month, but having a resolution was another required step. No official action was being requested from the commissioners, though. Behny said she decided not to include the specific dollar amount of the cost savings in the resolution itself, due to the various soft costs involved with holding an election.
She reminded the commissioners that Medaryville is electing officials for a one-year term this year, “So that in 2020, they can get on the county’s election cycle, so there will be no additional town costs incurred. And Monterey is looking at doing the same thing. They can go ahead and vote on it, but they can’t actually go on the one-year election cycle until 2023, which puts them on track with the county in 2024.”
The election board stressed than any municipality holding an election on an odd-numbered year has to pay a portion of the cost.
