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Department of State defends 22% voter-registration appropriation increase; explains accounting, on-demand forms and automatic registration benefits
Summary
Budget witnesses told lawmakers the voter-registration line increase reflects internal accounting of personnel costs and expanded on-demand mail registration and storage; the department said automatic voter registration improves accuracy and speed but could not quantify dollar savings.
A lawmaker asked why the governor’s budget included a roughly 22% increase for the Department of State’s voter-registration appropriation. Budget director Kim Mattis and Secretary Al Schmidt told the committee the rise largely reflects how staff time is charged internally and new operational costs for sending voter-registration forms on demand.
“...in the time after such a large election, it is normal for us to see an uptick in charges for staff charging time to that particular appropriation,” Kim Mattis said during questioning about the line-item increase. Mattis also described a recent initiative to let…
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