DENVER — In counties across Colorado, elections departments are gearing up for the midterm elections — printing ballots, sending out voter guides and starting to set up their in-person polling locations. Along with the normal focus on election security and voter education, this year, departments are facing an additional challenge due a nationwide paper shortage.
“What happened was most people don't work in the office anymore. So, there was lower demand for paper products, and there was also less supply relative to recycled paper,” said Jack Buffington, program director of supply chain management at the University of Denver.
On top of a paper shortage, there’s also been a lumber shortage and disruptions in the global supply chain with strikes and higher energy prices.
The problem is not necessarily new, though. Buffington says the supply chain had inherent issues that existed before the COVID-19 pandemic, but it acted as a triggering point. Online shopping and more demand for package delivery has also shifted the focus for many paper mills.
“With lower supply and demand, paper mills moved a lot of their focus and sales from paper products to packaging,” Buffington said.
For elections departments, concerns about the paper shortage have been ongoing for months, causing some to order their ballots, envelopes and "I voted" stickers earlier in the year to avoid issues. For Arapahoe County elections, that meant ordering paper for the November election at the beginning of the year.
“We're a very paper intensive process, which is a good thing because it's very reliable, it gives you records that you can look at. We want to mail a ballot to you and also give you an envelope to give it back to us. So, there's a lot of envelopes, a lot of paper,” said Peg Perl, deputy director of elections for the Arapahoe County.
In Colorado, the election paper trail is critical so that there is a physical copy of the ballot for recounts, audits and more. Perl says her vendors haven’t seen anything like this paper shortage in decades.
“It is a fairly unique situation from everyone that I've talked to in the industry, for sure, in terms of how it is really affecting the downstream,” she said.
Because of the paper shortage and inflation, things are also costing more. Arapahoe County is paying a few cents more per paper ballot this year.
The Denver election headquarters is also seeing that price hike firsthand. Like Arapahoe County, it has known about the paper shortage for a while and was able to buy its paper products in bulk ahead of time, but that was expensive.
“In 2020, we were looking at $800,000 to print all the ballots for the city and county of Denver. This year, we're well over $1 million,” said Todd Davidson, Denver’s director of elections.
Costs to send the ballots out and include an envelope for voters to return their ballots have gone up by about 13 percent. The cost to print Denver’s 96-page voter guide in English and Spanish has also increased.
Even the "I voted" stickers cost the city and county 22 percent more. This year, the county will feature the traditional sticker, one in braille and special ones for people who cast their ballots on Halloween or Dia de los Muertos. The ballot is also another long one this year.
“The length of our ballot is similar to the length that it was in 2020. It's three cards, each card is double-sided. And of course, that's English and Spanish for everything,” Davidson said.
He is expecting about an 80% turnout this midterm, which means the elections department will be processing about one million pieces of paper in its count. That’s the main driver for why it’s asking people to return their ballots early this year.
Davidson isn’t expecting the paper shortage to go away anytime soon, so next year, the department will do much of the same.
“Denver is unique in that we'll have three elections next year, probably, and we have budgeted into the cost. We do expect that the paper shortage will last at least another three years,” he said.
Buffington agrees that this paper shortage likely isn’t going away in the immediate future, and says elections departments should not be surprised when it happens. Instead, he says they need to plan ahead and order their supplies earlier.
“It's easy to blame things on the supply chain. You just have to change how you do business because we're going to encounter this turbulence, at least, for the next two, three years. And it could probably likely be longer than that,” he said.
