At a meeting of the Idaho Senate State Affairs Committee, Don Palmer, vice chair of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, briefed members on the Help America Vote Act’s testing and grant programs and the commission’s role supporting state and local election officials.

Palmer said the EAC was created after the 2000 election to establish testing and standards for voting systems, to serve as a clearinghouse for best practices and to distribute federal assistance. "What they did with the EAC was they created this agency that's bipartisan," Palmer said. He described the EAC’s testing and certification program for voting machines, the new Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG) 2.0 and a field-services program that investigates anomalies and audits manufacturers.

The presentation centered on federal funding and technical systems that assist Idaho and other states. Palmer said Congress initially authorized roughly $3 billion under HAVA to help states transition to newer voting systems and later appropriations and grants have supported equipment, cybersecurity and accessibility work. He described the HAVA security grants and said nationwide funding peaked in 2020 and has since declined; he also told the committee that "Idaho received about $8,800,000 in those fiscal years" and has spent roughly 60% of that allocation.

Phil McGrane, Idaho secretary of state, introduced Palmer and said Idaho has benefited from federal partnership and technical review. McGrane said the state’s clerks and secretary of state’s office were "extremely impressed" by the EAC presentations at a recent conference.

Palmer summarized EAC activities: standards development, independent laboratory testing, certification, post-election reviews, pilot programs for electronic poll books and a reporting program to Congress on each federal election’s data. He said the EAC is also working on a vulnerability disclosure process and on hash verification to ensure that systems approved in labs are the same deployed in the field.

On recruitment and training, Palmer described EAC-led poll-worker recruitment efforts, virtual training for state and local officials and an annual post-election report required by Congress. He noted that professional education and local capacity are central to securing elections and said the EAC offers free training and a newsletter to share practices.

During questions, senators pressed on improvements and resources. Palmer emphasized personnel and foundational resources for state offices: "The most fundamental thing to do to improve elections is to, sort of, increase that foundation upon which they work," he said, noting that transitions to new voting technology (for example, moving to VVSG 2.0-compliant systems) require planning and funding.

The committee did not take formal action on the briefing. Chairman Senator Guthrie closed the discussion by thanking Palmer and saying the committee had "great confidence in the elections that happen here in Idaho and Secretary McGrane and the county clerks around the state."