Federal funding called for to implement election reform

Friday, Jan. 10, 2003 | 9:30 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Secretary of State Dean Heller is asking Nevada's congressional delegation to back a potential $25 million federal appropriation to finance election reforms.

President Bush last October signed the Help America Vote Act, but Congress has yet to appropriate the money to permit the states to comply with the federal law.

Heller said Nevada is entitled to $5 million for such things as payments to local government to replace punch-card or lever voting systems. By law, these machines were to have been replaced by the November 1994 election unless the state issued an explanation as to why they were not replaced.

Eight rural Nevada counties still use these systems.

The secretary of state said the state also is eligible for $20.4 million for such things as making polling places and voting areas accessible to the disabled. Voters with disabilities must be assured the same privacy as other voters. And there must be one voting machine in each place accessible to the disabled.

Money would be available for training election workers, for pilot programs to test new voting systems and for equipment and research to improve voting technology.

The federal act also requires a computerized statewide voter registration system, something that Heller has advocated for years. But the Legislature has never approved such a system, partly because of the cost. Heller said the system must be in place by January 2004.

"Unless funds are immediately allocated for this task, given the current state of Nevada's budget crisis, it will be economically difficult for the state to complete the bid process by January 2004, let alone have the system implemented and functioning," he said.

Heller said the federal act allows a waiver for hardship to extend the deadline to 2006, but he added it was his understanding that applying for the waiver "may jeopardize the state's ability to receive federal funds."

In his letter to members of the congressional delegation, Heller said that "without the federal funding being available to the states to meet the new mandates established by HAVA, Nevada will be hard pressed to meet those requirements."

The secretary of state said Nevada is facing a fiscal crisis and "the 2003 Legislature will have a difficult time implementing the necessary changes required by the help America Vote Act in a timely fashion unless federal funding is guaranteed and available immediately."

Heller, as chief election officer in the state, must develop a plan for complying with the federal law.