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Secretary of State seeks ongoing funding for voter guide, new deputy and software subscriptions
Summary
Secretary of State Phil McGrane told the committee the office seeks ongoing funding for a printed voter guide, continued software subscriptions for campaign finance and lobbyist systems, a one‑time double‑fill for a deputy business director and continued investment in an elections management upgrade.
Secretary of State Phil McGrane presented the office’s FY26 enhancement requests to the Joint Finance‑Appropriations Committee, seeking recurring and one‑time funding for voter materials, staffing overlap for a key deputy, software subscription costs and continued election system upgrades.
McGrane summarized the office’s responsibilities and said the office currently has roughly 35.5 authorized FTP and has operated primarily on general fund appropriations. He told the committee that the office has already used approximately $2.9 million of a prior $10 million election‑systems upgrade appropriation and has remainders available for future work.
The office’s highest‑profile request is an ongoing $400,000 appropriation for a voter guide mailed to all Idaho households. McGrane said the estimated FY26 cost is about $300,000 for postage and $100,000 for printing; he noted the office intends the publication twice a year to cover both primary and general elections, which fall on different fiscal years.
Other requests included one‑time funding to double‑fill the deputy business director position so a successor can train alongside the incumbent before retirement; ongoing funding for software subscriptions for campaign finance and lobbyist reporting systems (the office reported a $775,000 base now for software subscriptions and cloud storage); $20,000 ongoing for IT training; and routine requests for the Idaho Blue Book and constitution printing.
McGrane also described interest in a one‑time $26,000 payment to cover an upgrade to a federal motor‑vehicle database interface and continued annual subscription fees to validate voter registration data. McGrane defended the office’s use of a competitive RFP process for election management system procurements and said bids for the core election system upgrade were in evaluation and ranged from about $5.6 million to $9.4 million. "We've spent, just shy of $2,900,000 of that $10,000,000 investment," he told the committee.
Committee members asked why the voter guide request is an annual appropriation rather than a biennial one and about the one‑time $26,000 federal system upgrade fee; McGrane said the fiscal year split between primary and general elections makes an annual appropriation more administratively straightforward. He also noted the office generates fee revenue from business filings and returns net revenue to the general fund.
