Photo by The Voice of Eye.

Of course, if you read DCist on a daily basis, this isn’t news to you. But you might want to go ahead and mark it down on your calendar now, as it doesn’t sound like the District’s Board of Elections and Ethics will be reminding you about it. As the city looks to keep election costs to a minimum, the BOEE could save $80,000 this spring by not sending out public notice of the April 26 special election to voters.

Freeman Klopott reports that the BOEE needs to make the election work with a limited amount of money — $590,000, which is about half of what it usually gets to operate a citywide race. And the city is banking on the community to help fill the void.

Board of elections spokeswoman Alysoun McLaughlin said if the mailers are cut the board would rely on the media and the help of community listserves to raise awareness in lieu of the mailer.

The “onus would also be on the candidates to drive voters [to the polls],” McLaughlin said. “Cutting budgets means tough decisions. We’re writing these analyses to help the policy makers make those decisions.”

The elimination of mailers raises two main questions. First, special elections usually feature incredibly low voter turnout. (For example: the 1997 special election to fill an at-large Council seat only drew a paltry 7.5 percent turnout citywide.) While many would argue that it is the civic responsibility of the government to, regardless of financial scenario, keep the public informed about a city-wide election to the Council, it’s worth examining how much of a difference $80,000 in mailers would make in a time of such fiscal crisis. The other question is whether media coverage, community listserves and free public radio announcements and distributing fliers at community meetings, as Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh suggested, will be enough to get the word out about the election. (Not everyone has email or goes to ANC meetings, after all.)

The city is also still deciding whether to open the usual 143 precincts around the city or to save additional money by operating 16 voting centers around the city, open to all residents regardless of their home ward.