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Greene Co. asking state to help with new voting reforms

Mar 19, 2019 7:30 am
Sarah Trafton is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media Greene County officials are seeking financial relief for state-mandated election upgrades. The county Legislature March 11, approved two resolutions requesting funding for the purchase of electronic poll books and for costs associated with enacted voting reforms, including early voting, consolidation of the federal and state primaries, voter registration transfers and more. The proposed upgrades are estimated to cost up to $1 million per county, according to the Greene County resolution. Municipalities statewide are struggling to meet those new requirements, Greene County Administrator Shaun Groden said. “Everyone is in the same boat,” he said. “All 62 counties are faced with the same thing. We’re being forced to buy the new equipment and pay our staff for two weekends of overtime before elections.” Greene County Board of Elections Republican Commissioner Brent Bogardus said the Greene County Board of Elections, along with other county boards, will meet with the state board later this month. “All the counties in the state are trying to make the point that this is going to cost money to implement — a very significant amount of money,” he said. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.