This below-the-fold story from yesterday’s Columbus Dispatch caught my eye, because it raises a problem familiar to local election officials: not having enough money to run elections. In this case, the board of elections in Morgan County, a small county in southeast Ohio, has sued its county commissioners (the entity that holds the pursestrings) seeking $29,000 in emergency funding for November’s election. According to the special prosecutor representing the board, it “will have no choice but to lay off the entire staff and will not be able to pay the other expenses necessary for the upcoming election” without these funds. Although this is an extreme example, the shortage of resources faced by local election officials — typically competing for scarce dollars against law enforcement, social services, jails, and other needs that seem more urgent — is a widespread and persistent problem.