Election cost rationale asked

$848 to elect precinct committee officers (“Primary costs multiplied by precinct committee officer races,” Sept. 26)?

I ran for the PCO from my precinct in the last election. I sent in my nomination online at no cost. The election process was conducted by mail. The tallies were automated with the possible exception of the write-in candidates.

As I looked at the numbers of the cost per PCO, I find them difficult to believe. The candidates for local, state and federal offices must be on the ballot. The total cost for the Spokane County primary, according to County Auditor Vicky Dalton, was $381,600. The 400 Republican and Democratic PCOs accounted for $339,360 or $848.40 per PCO. The other 72 candidates had a cost of $42,240 or $586.66 per candidate. How can it cost over $848 per PCO to have them on the same ballot for election?

This is government at its finest. It must be creative accounting or new math. My question for Secretary of State Sam Reed and Ms. Dalton is this: Why not give the people an accounting of the costs? Where and how was this money spent?

Michael J. Danielson

Greenacres