KINGMAN — The Mohave County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously in favor of a 50-cent voter surcharge that will be billed to the municipalities and other entities per district holding an election.

The implementation of the voter surcharge was at the request of the Mohave County Recorder’s Office, Voter Registration Division. The surcharge will be effective July 1.

“The elections department already has a surcharge in place for equipment used during an election,” said Kim Stewart, Mohave County voter registration supervisor. “The voter registration department is a software maintenance fee payable to the voter registration department,” she said.

The elections department and the voter registration department are separate, Stewart explained. When an entity holds an election, the elections department sends a bill for the county’s services that included the early voting, staff, mailings and verifying signatures, which they have utilized for the election, she said.

County officials considered adding the voter surcharge to the elections department fees, but decided the voter registration would be more easily dedicated to its intended purpose of generating a specific fund to support the computer software maintenance tied to the state’s voter registration system, Stewart said.

In the aftermath of the 2000 general election, congress passed the Help America Vote Act, or HAVA, law to reform voting procedures. The law required a statewide voter registration system, which began to be installed in 2007, according to official Mohave County surcharge proposal documents.

The statewide system was originally funded by HAVA and the state has subsidized the annual maintenance fee thus far. The state is required to continue financial responsibility through 2010, the documents said.

Mohave County’s portion of the statewide billing is $65,000. The amount is a percentage-based figure of the total state cost shared between Arizona’s 15 counties, Stewart said.

A formula calculation based on the number of active and inactive voters in Mohave County in comparison to the $65,000 concluded to be 50 cents per voter to help offset the computer software costs.

The monies collected from the new surcharge in time will be paid directly to IBM, which is the computer software company that maintains, supports and provides upgrades to the voter registration program, she said.

The surcharge will begin being collected now with the hope of generating funds to prepare for the 2011 financial responsibility. Budget allocations will not be included in the Mohave County budget until 2011 fiscal year, according to Stewart.

General and primary county elections are already included in county’s budget and are paid for through the county’s general fund. If the ballot is shared during general and primary elections “each entity on the ballot will be charged the (voter surcharge) fee,” Stewart said.

Lake Havasu Unified School District’s election scheduled later this year will be the first election affected by the new voter surcharge, she said.

There were three opposed public speakers Monday at the Board of Supervisors general meeting in Kingman who took their turn at the podium during the public hearing to voice their concerns about adding a surcharge to elections.

“I don’t think it will discourage anyone from voting, it is just a way of recouping the cost of special elections,” said Mohave County Supervisor Buster Johnson R-Dist. 3 during the meeting.

You may contact the reporter at jhanson@havasunews.com.