Fund ‘early’ mandate

The early voting genie is officially out of the bottle. One million Massachusetts voters cast ballots during the 12-day early voting period in November, the first time the state offered early access to the polls, and Beacon Hill is unlikely to unwind what many voters may now view as an entitlement.

But there is a cost that comes with the 2014 early voting law, and Auditor Suzanne Bump says the state needs to pick up more of it.

Bump in a report last week said cities and towns incurred about $720,000 in required costs associated with early voting, specifically for each community to establish an early voting polling location with adequate staffing and privacy. Her office estimates municipalities spent another $1.2 million on optional services, such as extended office hours, extra polling locations, weekend services, etc.

Now, if a community decides to go whole hog on early voting in the next statewide election, state taxpayers shouldn’t be expected to pick up all of the extra costs. (Boston, for example, opened City Hall for early voting every weekday, and several evenings, and offered early voting on at least one day in every neighborhood.)

But the state should fund the basic costs, which Bump has determined amount to a local mandate. Under state law, the state is prohibiting from passing costs on to municipalities to implement state programs. In smaller communities those costs can amount to a significant burden.

We remain skeptical that early voting is worth all the time, effort and expense, when the commonwealth could simply adopt “no-excuse” absentee balloting and essentially achieve the same outcome. Advocates who insist that early voting generates more interest in elections and boosts voter turnout don’t appear to have much on which to base that argument; the 75 percent turnout in Massachusetts in 2016 was slightly higher than the 73 percent turnout in 2012, yes, but the election also featured the highly controversial race between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton along with several hot-button ballot questions (legalized pot, anyone?).

But if the state is going to require cities and towns to offer early voting, it needs to shoulder some of the financial burden.