Voting machines for Rincon are decades old, but cut major costs from Effingham County's

Using the county's voting machines and having its elections and registration office run the city's election came at a cost of about $12,000 versus the approximate $3,000 for the city to run its own election.

"The county can enter into intergovernmental agreements to have the county elections board run the cities elections," said Effingham County manager Tim Callanan. "We offered Rincon, as well as Springfield and Guyton, that if you want us to run the elections, we will enter into an agreement where our elections and registration office will run them for a fee.

"Rincon has about 7,900 registered voters. We used the same figure per registered voter for all three cities. There are 1,827 registered voters in Guyton and 1,791 in Springfield. It costs the county about $6.15 per registered voter to run a countywide election. We were going to split the cost 75%-25% with the Rincon paying $1.50 per voter for a cost of about $12,000, and the county picking up about $4.65,"  Callanan added.

Rincon city manager John Klimm acknowledged that at same point in the future, it's likely the county would take over handling the city's elections, just not yet.

"Although there have been conversations in the past, I was surprised to receive an email from the county that if you'd like we will take over the upcoming municipal election," Klimm said. "The council, at their last meeting, wanted to think about it and had concerns about the dollar amount the county would charge. I just think they didn't want to make that drastic change right before a major election. The county has never handled our elections."

Rincon city clerk Dulcia King acknowledged that the city's voting machines — that once belonged to Effingham County — were old but continued to serve their purpose well.

"The machines we use are called Shoup machines. They've probably been around since the 1940s," King said. "You flip the lever and the curtain closes. Once you finish voting you push the bar back and the curtain opens and it counts your vote. My understanding is that the machines once belonged to the county and once they switched over to electronic machines we got theirs. These machines are only used with municipal elections. The last time Rincon had an election and used these machines was 2019. On presidential elections, the county handles the voting."

Klimm says the machines provide more security.

"These old machines can't be hacked," he said. "Unlike computerized machines, which everyone is going towards, the saving grace of these old machines is that you cant hack into them. They're getting old and at some point we'll have to make a decision. But they've been very reliable."

Rincon's costs for handling it's own municipal election is limited to personnel costs, which includes city staff and poll workers, and should run about $3,000, King said.

"Probably not even 25 percent of our 7,900 registered voters vote. In our municipal elections we probably only have no more than 500 people vote and that's on a good election," King said. "So for us the cost is just our employees and those staffing the poll."

One consideration is that when there is a municipal election and a county referendum on the same election day, Rincon voters have to go to two polls to vote, one in the city and one in the county, which can be confusing to the voters. In addition to the mayor and three council seats up for election in November, the county has referendums on ECommerce and Special Purpose Local Options Sales Tax on the November ballot.

"It has always been that city voters would have to vote in two locations if something was on the municipal ballot and something on the county. Our elections fall on the odd year. If the county has something on the ballot, like a referendum, it might be on the odd year. Then city voters would have to vote in two locations. But it's rare for the county referendums and the municipal election to fall on the same year," King said.

Trying to address that in the future is something the county and city both agree on.

"We appreciate the county thinking about us and it might be something for the future but for now the council had some concerns, like cost and timing, that needed to be addressed," Klimm said.

"Once we get through this election we'll sit down with the cities and see what we can work out," the county manager said.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Voting machines for Rincon are decades old, but cut major costs from Effingham County's