Special election cost less than expected
City clerk says final tab for soda tax vote was $59K, about $30K below estimate
When Mayor Javier Gonzales and a majority of city councilors decided to hold a special election on a proposed Santa Fe tax on sugary beverages in May, some taxpayers criticized the cost of not waiting for next year’s regular municipal election. City officials estimated expenses for the special election could run as high as $90,000.
Gonzales’ side lost the election decisively, but the expense of putting the question before voters turned out to be lower than projected. City Clerk Yolanda Vigil on Thursday pegged the final cost of the special election at $59,000. “We kept it bare-bones,” she said. A big reason for the lower-thanexpected cost, Vigil said, was that she
didn’t anticipate voter turnout would be as high as it was May 2. Instead of setting up the normal 12 voting convenience centers, she only authorized eight. That meant fewer election workers and less voting equipment.
“Little did we know,” she said, how big voter turnout would be. “This special election was bigger than our mayoral election.”
The election on the contentious tax issue drew the biggest turnout in recent municipal history. Nearly 20,000 city residents, almost 38 percent of eligible voters in Santa Fe, cast ballots. Nearly 8,500 people voted early or by absentee ballots.
Vigil also said she tried to keep costs down. For example, she said, she used leftover supplies from previous elections.
Voters on election day reported waiting in line for 30 minutes, if not longer. But other than long lines, the election went smoothly.
Even so, taxpayers have questioned the need to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a special election when the next regularly scheduled municipal election was less than a year away, especially because the city’s finances had been on shaky ground.