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Officials getting mixed messages about funds for early voting

Aug 23, 2019 1:30 pm
Jon Campbell is reporting for the Democrat & Chronicle county governments statewide are concerned about their ability to pay for early-voting sites after being informed that nearly $8 million in state funding was not coming through. The state Board of Elections sounded the alarm August 23, warning county election officials that the state's Division of Budget said it was only approving about $2.2 million of the $10 million pot of funding — just enough to cover only 145 early-voting sites statewide. However, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office said it will still approve the early-voting funding in full, perhaps as soon as next week. The state's brand new early-voting system requires individual counties to open polling sites nine days before the November 5 general election, to provide voters with more time to cast their ballots. Cuomo and state lawmakers approved $24 million in funding in the state budget this year to help counties implement the system, including $14 million for electronic poll books and other infrastructure, as well as $10 million to open and staff the early-voting sites. Read the full story in the Democrat & Chronicle.