WASHINGTON: The price of democracy in 2004: $4 billion, and that's not even counting all the ballots, poll workers and election lawyers.
Add the expenses borne by states and local governments to be determined later and the price tag rises from hundreds of millions of dollars to possibly upward of $1 billion more.
In the business world, $5 billion would be enough to buy out Donald Trump twice. It would pay for about 2,200 Super Bowl commercials, or educate about 30,000 students at Yale, the alma mater of President Bush and John Kerry. Where did all the money go?
Congressional and presidential candidates alone devoted at least $1.8 billion to their primary and general election campaigns, with about one-third of that spent by Bush and Kerry.
Ad firms consumed much of the money, but other small businesses got a piece of the action, too. Former Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean, for example, spent nearly $7,000 on "thank you" chocolates for donors.
The Democratic and Republican parties and the host committees helping them spent about $162 million on their nominating convention. In all, the two parties spent at least $957 million this election cycle. Bush and Kerry also have millions to draw on in case of a presidential recount.
Much of the money poured into partisan politics this election cycle came from outside groups. Organisations spent at least $436 million in 2003 and '04, figures compiled by the Political Money Line campaign finance tracking service show.
The National Association of Secretaries of State estimates the elections will cost an average of $33 million per state. The costliest: California, at $66 million. The least expensive is Wyoming, about $500,000.
The estimated $4 billion that candidates, party committees and interest groups devoted to the presidential races is about $1 billion more than in the 1999-2000 cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group.
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