LOD: Help America Vote Update

Follow-up on HAVA funds: The NC General Assembly continues to hear about the importance of including roughly $650,000 in the state budget in order to free up $4.1 million in federal money for operating our elections system. The federal money from the Help America Vote Act will pay for voting machine maintenance, poll worker training, Early Voting sites, and other vital election expenses. The state House has included the necessary matching or “maintenance of effort” money in its version of the budget, and the Raleigh News & Observer and Charlotte Observer are urging the state Senate to do likewise. The Senate’s proposed budget is full of problems and bad choices, like the House version, but it does include the HAVA matching money – although in a different manner than the House. The Senate budget is on the floor for votes this week, then leaders in the two chambers will hash out their differences on dozens of issues. The president of the Election Boards Association of NC wrote an op-ed column in the Winston-Salem Journal today that explains why the two sides need to agree to put up the matching funds – and get back $6 for each new dollar the state invests in fair, accessible elections.