The special election for the recall has forced Santa Barbara County to draw approximately $800,000 from its reserve fund.

County money usually set aside for unanticipated events is being spent on printing regular ballots, sample ballots, absentee ballots, envelopes and postage. In the past, the state has been required to pay for the expenses of all absentee ballots. As a result of the budget crises, the state decided last May to no longer reimburse counties for the absentee ballots.

“We’re still billing the state for the absentee ballots and eventually, hopefully, someday we will get reimbursed, but I am not holding my breath,” said Joe Holland, registrar of voters and county clerk-assessor-recorder.

Santa Barbara County has 193,363 registered voters, 7,180 of which have registered since August. Out of these newly registered voters, an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 are UCSB students.

Associated Students External Vice Presidents Logan Green and Jewel Love conducted a voter registration drive geared toward students. During freshman move-in weekend they sent volunteers to hall meetings to register the incoming freshmen. They also organized walks through Isla Vista, sent volunteers into the classes of around 30 professors who gave them permission to do so and set up registration tables throughout the campus.

Due to the special nature of the election, registration drive organizers had less time than usual to register voters. In a normal election they would have had until Oct. 20.

“We were trying to match the numbers we got in last year’s recall of Gail Marshall, but with the time constraints it proved difficult,” said Barbra Ortiz, special projects coordinator for the Office of Student Life.

The campus registration drive drew in approximately 2,200 new voters on the last day to register, which fell on the first day of class, Sept. 22.

“In the past we’ve been lucky to get 1,000 on the last day. We had an amazing last day,” Green said.

With the Oct. 7 election approaching, the county has printed approximately 150,000 regular ballots, 186,000 sample ballots and 65,000 absentee ballots with money from its reserves. The county is also responsible for paying postage for the absentee and sample ballots.

“We’re probably one of the post office’s biggest customers, but we try to make it as efficient as possible by using bulk rates,” Holland said.

Two separate ballots will be distributed to the 33rd and the 35th Districts. Following the theory that voters are likely to chose the first name that appears on the ballot, the Secretary of State holds a lottery to determine the order of the names as they appear on the ballots and switches the order from district to district.