Secretary of State Awards $280,000 in Grants to Vermont Towns

Grants are Awarded to Improve the Administration of Federal Elections

Montpelier. Today, Secretary of State Deb Markowitz announced that her office will be awarding $280,000 in grants to over half of Vermont’s municipalities to help them meet the mandates of the Federal “Help America Vote Act” (HAVA). HAVA was signed into law on October 29, 2002 and requires every town to keep their voter registration data in a statewide voter registration database and requires every polling place to have technology available to permit people with disabilities to vote privately and independently.  

Over half of Vermont’s 246 municipalities (235 towns and nine cities) applied for and received grants of up to $3,000 to help fund services and equipment needed to improve the administration of Primary and General Elections in 2006 and beyond.  Towns with a checklist of over 3,000 voters were allowed to request additional funding. 

Most of the costs for meeting the mandates of the HAVA have been borne by the Secretary of State’s office.  In 2004 the Secretary of State’s Office received $16.6 million dollars in Federal funds to help Vermont implement HAVA.  Markowitz said, “we have been very careful in our spending of this federal money so that we have been able to create an election trust fund so that now, and into the future, we can ensure that the costs of meeting the many new federal mandates created by HAVA will not be shifted to the municipalities of Vermont.”  To date, the Secretary of State’s Office has spent approximately $1,670,000 on complying with the requirements of HAVA.   Markowitz said, “We were pleased that the legislature permitted us to establish this grant program to help our municipalities cover some of the incidental costs of the federal election reform mandates.” 

Municipalities will be using the grants for equipment and services such as desktop or laptop computers, printers, installing a telephone line at the town’s polling place (so that they are able to use telephone voting equipment), installing satellite or broadband connections, and purchasing software and/or training related to preparing entrance checklists and reports.

A total amount of $280,000 was paid to 131 municipalities.  The original Request for Proposal was issued in late April and the deadline was extended twice to ensure that all towns’ 2006 election needs will be met.  Additional grants will be made available to municipalities in 2008 and 2010 for any needs that were not foreseen in the 2006 elections.  Since 2004 the Secretary of State’s office has also awarded over $280,000 in grant funding to Vermont’s cities and towns to make their polling places accessible to voters with disabilities.