The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics is stuck in the unenviable task of conducting two sets of elections in the next two months—the April 3 primary and the May 15 Ward 5 special election. But while the former is fully funded, the latter runs the risk of not happening at all if Mayor Vince Gray and the D.C. Council don’t come to an agreement on a larger spending bill.

In a letter sent Tuesday to Gray and D.C. Councilmember Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4), the three-member board warned that if it didn’t receive the $318,000 needed to conduct the election in the next week, it might not be able to meet deadlines to get ballots and voter notification cards printed in time.

“If funds are not made available immediately, the Board will be in the untenable position of violating either laws relating to timely public notice and distribution of ballots or the provision of the Anti-Deficiency Act,” wrote board chair Deborah K. Nichols, citing the law that forbids agencies from spending money they don’t have.

According to Pedro Ribeiro, Gray’s spokesman, the money was included in a $42 million suplemental budget submitted by Gray in January to cover shortfalls in certain agencies, and the D.C. Council just needs to vote on it.

But a source with knowledge of the issue said that many councilmembers do not agree with the broader budget bill, though, and that the funding for the special election is being used as something of a bargaining chip by Gray. The money should just be reprogrammed by Gray, said our source. (According to the Examiner, an aide to Bowser requested that the election money be separated out of the budget, but Gray’s chief of staff said that it wasn’t likely to happen.)

Ribeiro told us yesterday that the funding for the election to fill the seat once held by Harry Thomas, Jr. is a spending pressure that should be dealt with the same way other spending pressures are dealt with—through the supplemental budget bill.

Elections officials aren’t pleased, and are grumbling that without the money next week, purchasing orders for ballots and notification cards won’t be able to go out. No additional legislative session has been listed for next week to move the supplemental budget bill, and D.C. Council Chair Kwame Brown was unavailable for comment throughout the day yesterday.

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