In Cuyahoga County, commissioners approved additional spending of $1.5 million to pay for election board overtime and other expenses, about 13 percent of its annual budget of $11.5 million.

Seven-day-a-week double shifts to handle voter registrations, including 180,000 new registrations, started in mid-September, Director Michael Vu said Monday.

In Allen County, the election board exceeded its $500,000 budget by almost $150,000, hiring double the normal amount of part-time workers.

"There were some weeks where I had staff members working 90-plus hours," said director Keith Cunningham.

Last week, Hamilton County elections officials said the county spent $6.2 million on elections this year, 40 percent more than in 2000, the last presidential election year.

Statewide, "The numbers are up pretty substantially," said Aaron Ockerman, a Columbus lobbyist representing county election board directors.

Officials say increased voter registration, Republican challenges of some voters ahead of the election and several last-minute policy changes all contributed to the costs. Other expenses included placing stickers over independent candidate Ralph Nader's name after he was removed from the ballot.

Nationally, the average cost per state of the 2004 election was about $33 million, for a total of as much as $2 billion, according to a preliminary analysis by the National Association of Secretaries of State.

That includes costs to county election boards and states, association spokeswoman Meredith Imwalle said. Expenses have risen because of requirements of the 2002 federal Help America Vote Act. The association's "educated guess" is this was the most expensive election ever, in part because of the act's requirements, Imwalle said.

The federal law provides money to states to replace punch-card ballot systems, create statewide voter registration systems and ensure that polling places are accessible to voters with disabilities, among other requirements.

It was enacted following the 2000 election.