BLOOMINGTON - Thirteen years ago, Springfield residents voted to merge two election authorities into one.

The Springfield Election Commission was abolished and all election duties were transferred to the Sangamon County Clerk's office.

The county's election costs dropped from $5.4 million for the four-year election cycle of 1993-96 to $3.05 million for 1997-2000.

Sangamon County Clerk Joe Aiello said two managers and two clerical workers were let go after the transition and Springfield Election Commission contracts for outside legal staff and information technology services were terminated.

The county clerk's office gets legal representation from the state's attorney, and the county has its own information technology staff.

Another big savings came in publication costs. State law requires election authorities to publish ballots. In some cases, under the previous, two-election authority setup, Aiello said each office was paying to publish identical ballots.

"When we went to one office, we reduced our publication costs by 60 to 70 percent," he said.

The idea of consolidating election functions within the county clerk's office was initiated by then Springfield Mayor Karen Hasara, said Brian McFadden, who served as Hasara's chief of staff and is now Sangamon County administrator.

Hasara was looking for cost-cutting measures, said McFadden, adding she also successfully consolidated other offices.

McFadden said while the mayor and Aiello supported the election change, it was opposed by others, including some members of the Springfield Election Commission.

State law requires such a change be put before voters residing within the election commission jurisdiction.

"We had a significant (voter) education campaign," McFadden said. "We argued that the county clerk is an elected office, has accountability and can be voted out. The mayor has no control over the (election commission), can't make (commissioners) accountable; they have free reign."

Proponents also hired the Taxpayers Federation of Illinois to conduct an independent study that determined the change would, in fact, save tax dollars, he said.

After voters approved eliminating the city commission, its election duties became the responsibility of the county clerk's office. The only alternative was to have another vote to create a county election commission, or for the county board to create a county election commission.

Aiello said the city commission had been using optical scan voting equipment while the county still had punch cards. The optical scan equipment lease was terminated, the city's former punch card equipment brought out of storage and punch cards were used throughout the county.

During election season, Aiello said he gets extra help from employees in other areas within his office and from other county departments. In off-election times, half the election clerical staff is moved to vital records, he said.

"We have the luxury of sharing staff," he said. "The commission doesn't have that backup."