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After learning that the Director of Elections had come to this website to view the Hand Count Estimator, and pulled the St Charles County (MO) estimates that were in the tool as samples, I wanted to be sure the Election Director had all the information he needed.
In his April 3rd email to the St. Charles County Council, the Director (Kurt Bahr) mentioned the estimator tool, but said the sample data was:
“Based on our precinct sizes from 5-10 years ago …”
This is accurate when you consider that Bahr was only looking at sample data for presidential elections. The tool was published in May, 2024. The November 2024 election had not occurred yet, so the most recent presidential elections were in 2016 and 2020 — which are about 5 to 10 years ago. The attached Hand Count Estimator tool is updated St Charles, and has 4 worksheets for these election types: municipal, presidential, mid-term, and primary. Absentee ballots are included in each.
But Bahr neglects to pull the sample data for municipal elections in St Charles County. While a presidential election estimates election judge labor costs to be $287,520, a municipal election estimate is $37,920.
See Proof Hand Counting Costs Less than Machines to see how we compare the hand count estimates against machine costs to show an annual savings of elections costs to St Charles County of at least $68,000.
