Starke County recently received over $10,000 in CARES Act reimbursement funds from the Secretary of State’s Office for items dealing with the 2020 elections.
Starke County Clerk Bernadette Manuel told the Election Board members this week that that she asked for over $13,000 to be reimbursed, but only $10,117.32 was approved. She noted that the approval letter did not specify what items were approved for reimbursement.
Manuel listed mailing expenses pertaining to absentee voting, postage, employee hours, extra canvassing board members, extra poll workers and training, and food for the extra poll workers. The cost of public outreach efforts to notify voters of the change to Vote Centers was also included.
Overall, Manuel, Starke County Election Board President Marcia Bedrock and member Colleen Hodge were satisfied with what the county was able to receive. Manuel said the money that was reimbursed went into the postage line item in the 2021 budget.
“Since we just had Census in 2020, if we have any redistricting, we have to send a letter to every registered voter in the county,” explained Manuel. “Since the potential of a very large postage bill could be in our future this year, I figured that $10,000 would do better being in postage than anywhere else.”
Some of the supply line items in the budget may benefit from appropriations from that reimbursement money as well, according to Manuel.
