On Tuesday, voters in Jackson and Clay counties will decide whether they want to renew separate law enforcement sales taxes.</p><p>But taxpayers in those counties will end up paying very different amounts to hold those elections.</p><p>&bull;For Jackson County&rsquo;s COMBAT election, the total estimated bill is a staggering $847,000 &mdash; or $1.97 per registered voter.</p><p>&bull;In Clay County the total potential bill is only $65,000 &mdash; or 44 cents per registered voter.</p><p>Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders on Friday acknowledged the &ldquo;striking&rdquo; difference between the estimates.</p><p>The funds will pay for everything from election judges to rented polling places to printed ballots to food for workers.</p><p>The costs of holding elections often don&rsquo;t get much publicity, even though they run into millions of dollars a year in this area.</p><p>That laissez-faire attitude must change, especially given this fact: The cities and counties that pay for elections with tax dollars are the <em>customers </em>of the state-appointed election boards.</p><p>As such, the cities and counties should be assertive in finding out what services they receive from election boards, whether the expenses for those services are reasonable, and whether changes could be made.</p><p>Sanders agreed Friday that &ldquo;everyone owes an obligation to taxpayers to minimize&rdquo; election costs. He pointed out that Jackson County officials are conducting a special audit of election expenses from 2008. </p><p>Shelley Kneuvean, deputy chief administrative officer, said the audit would supply the county valuable information that it could use to better control future expenses.</p><p>That&rsquo;s encouraging news, but it doesn&rsquo;t help Jackson County taxpayers this go-around.</p><p>Consider a few of the ways Clay County&rsquo;s election board held down its costs:</p><p>&bull;It opted not to send out postcard reminders.</p><p>The Kansas City and Jackson County election boards did mail out notices, even though not required to by state statute, at a cost of nearly $75,000 in postage. (The Kansas City board serves the Kansas City portion of the county and the Jackson County board serves suburban residents.)</p><p>The election offices commonly use the cards to tell people where to vote, especially if polling places have been changed or dropped. </p><p>But all that information is on the Internet and included in required printed legal notices. </p><p>Those notices will cost Jackson Countians $40,000 for the COMBAT election &mdash; in addition to the postcard expenses.</p><p>Turnout on Tuesday is expected to be extremely low, at or below 15 percent. That means reminder cards were sent to around 375,000 people who probably won&rsquo;t take part in the election.</p><p> &bull;The Clay County Board of Election Commissioners also saved money by relying on previously trained judges for this election.</p><p>Director Dave Reinhart said the county was confident it had enough judges who would have retained the knowledge they received at earlier training sessions. In addition, most Clay County residents will deal with only a one-issue ballot.</p><p>The Kansas City and Jackson County election boards thought otherwise. An estimated 1,897 judges, deputies and election specialists were expected to be trained for up to three hours each before next Tuesday. Costs were estimated at $30 a person in Kansas City and $35 a person in Jackson County, adding more than $59,000 to the estimated bills. </p><p>Election officials said the training was an important refresher. &ldquo;Judges tend to forget items,&rdquo; said Jackson County Director Tammy Brown.