In Woburn last week, the city spent roughly $20,000 to run a special election that drew 3,604 voters. That's about $5 a voter, or 30 voters for every one election worker. In Lexington, a special election that covered just six precincts cost even more than that and drew still fewer voters, at about $11 per vote.
Special elections to replace state and federal lawmakers who resign midterm don't come cheap. In Lowell alone, the recent special primary and general elections to replace US representative Martin T. Meehan cost the city nearly $100,000. The unexpected elections pose unanticipated expenses for cities and towns, costing communities five- and six-figure sums at a time when budgets are tight and the cost of governance is rising faster than revenue.
Last week's special primary election to replace a former state senator, Robert A. Havern, is likely to cost local taxpayers in the Fourth Middlesex District - Arlington, Billerica, Burlington, Lexington, and Woburn - more than $100,000 combined after the bills are tallied.
Because communities have to prepare for 100 percent turnout, the costs are the same no matter how many voters show up. So, the special primary cost about the same for those communities as last year's general election, which included the governor's race and drew nearly four times as many voters in the district. Those five communities will pick up a similar tab Dec. 13, when they hold the final election to replace Havern, who left to join a Boston lobbying firm in early September.
Given the cost and time involved in staging an election, some municipal clerks wonder whether there might be a better - or, at least, less-expensive - way to replace officials who resign midterm.
"You have to ask, with the turnout you're getting and the cost involved, is this the best system?" said William C. Campbell, the clerk in Woburn.
Staging the primary for six of Woburn's seven wards - Ward 2 is covered by another Senate district - ran about $20,000 to $25,000, including pay for election workers (more than $10,000), police (about $5,000), school custodians (roughly $1,500), and election advertising ($400), among other line items.
Other costs can't be calculated, Campbell said, like the disruption at local schools - where the special election occurred a week after the municipal election - and lost time in the clerk's office, which also maintains vital records, issues a range of licenses, and provides administrative support to the City Council and other boards. The state covered only a small portion - a few thousand dollars - of the cost.
"It's the price of democracy," said Campbell, who, like other election officials, champions voting and doesn't propose swapping appointments for elections lightly. "But then you get a 17 percent turnout, which means 83 percent of the people didn't show up, and it's kind of discouraging."
Havern's eventual Senate replacement will serve less than a year before the seat opens up again. Should the Democratic nominee, state Representative J. James Marzilli Jr. of Arlington, succeed next month, Arlington would have to hold another set of special elections to replace him.
Billerica, which is holding two elections to fill Havern's seat, also had to hold a special primary in September and a special general election in October to replace Meehan, who stepped down in the Fifth Congressional District.
The four elections will cost Billerica about $80,000 total, Town Clerk Shirley Schult said, trying not to sound chagrined about the expense-to-turnout ratio. "I have my thoughts," she said, "but it would be best if I did not put them out there."
For state elections, the secretary of the Commonwealth's office picks up the tab for printing ballots and also provides some money to keep the polls open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., paying a prorated amount to cities and towns that used to open later or held different hours before the state imposed a uniform voting time in the early 1980s. But most of the mandated expenses are carried by the cities and towns.
Like Campbell, Schult wonders whether special elections are the best method for replacing lawmakers who leave midterm.
"I do think that there should be a different method for filling seats, because some of these will have to run [again] next September," she said. "It's a big cost for a short time."
The expense varies community to community, based largely on the number of voters, precincts, and polling places. Each location needs staff to check voters in and out and manage the election, as well as police to monitor the proceedings and ensure the secure transport of ballots, among other costs.
In Lowell, with 48,865 registered voters, 33 precincts, and 20 polling locations, a typical election day runs about $50,000, said Gail Cenik, Lowell Election and Census Commission office manager. The state reimburses less than a third of the cost, she said.
In Andover, which has 19,317 voters on its active rolls and uses one or two polling locations, depending on the year, a typical election day costs $12,000, said Town Clerk Randy Hanson. She said she will try to find the money for the last set - the primary and general election to replace Meehan, a seat ultimately won by Niki Tsongas - within her department's budget of about $359,000, but may have to request additional money from the town.
One vacancy means "two elections, and it's hard to recover from that in a small department like mine," she said.
Still, there is some talk of reimbursement. Before the Democratic primary to replace Havern, state Representative Patrick M. Natale of Woburn said at a forum that his first move in the Senate would be to sponsor a full-reimbursement bill for this election; Natale carried Woburn but finished fourth.
Campbell said a fellow clerk told him about a special election in Central Massachusetts in which the state gave the towns the unpaid salary of the legislator who had resigned to help offset the election cost.
But, for now, a special election remains a bit like a spring snowstorm after a long winter: You don't anticipate it but you have to pay for it.
And elections, if not cheap, are at least less expensive than northeasters, said Thomas Hickey, Burlington's assistant town administrator. The two Senate elections will cost the town roughly $20,000 combined, while a northeaster, he said, can run $25,000 to $100,000 for cleanup.
Eric Moskowitz can be reached at emoskowitz@globe.com.
