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Secretary of State seeks ongoing funding for voter guide and continues election system upgrades
Summary
Secretary of State Phil McGrane and Legislative Services Office staff briefed the Joint Finance‑Appropriations Committee on requests including an ongoing voter guide appropriation, software subscription increases, a one‑time DMV system fee and continued work on an election management system RFP funded earlier by a $10 million appropriation.
Christopher Lahoset, budget and policy analyst, presented the Secretary of State’s budget requests to the Joint Finance‑Appropriations Committee, including an ongoing $400,000 appropriation for a voter guide, funds for software subscriptions, and a one‑time $26,000 fee tied to a federal DMV system upgrade.
Lahoset said the $400,000 voter‑guide request should be split in estimates as $300,000 for mailing and $100,000 for printing; the office had previously requested funding in statute and intends to run legislation again. He said prior appropriations included a one‑time $10 million in FY24 for election system upgrades; about $2.5 million of that has been used and the remainder reappropriated into FY25.
Secretary of State Phil McGrane told the committee the voter guide has wide public support. “Voters overwhelmingly would like to see a voter guide,” McGrane said, adding the office’s plan was to produce guides for both the primary and general elections and to include candidate information that was not in the previous pamphlet. He said campaign finance and lobbyist reporting systems have been modernized with the earlier funding, that VoteIdaho has seen substantial use in the last election cycle, and that a request for proposals (RFP) for a new statewide election management system is under evaluation with bids ranging roughly from $5.6 million to $9.4 million.
Other requests presented included a one‑time “double fill” to hire and overlap a deputy business director before the current deputy retires (no new FTP requested), $287,100 ongoing for software‑as‑a‑service subscriptions (campaign finance, lobbyist software, website plugins and records‑request tools), $20,000 ongoing for IT training and recurring funding to produce the Idaho Blue Book and constitution publications. Lahoset noted postage increases as a driver of higher distribution costs; the USPS single‑piece stamp rose from 60¢ to 73¢ since 2022.
Committee members asked about the one‑time $26,000 fee for DMV access; McGrane said the federal system upgrade imposed a one‑time assessment on participating agencies and that the office will continue to pay an ongoing quarterly subscription fee. Members also asked about the frequency of the voter guide; McGrane said primary and general election timing and fiscal‑year breaks justified an annual appropriation.
Why it matters: The Secretary of State’s IT and publication requests fund election administration tools used by voters, candidates and counties. The committee’s decisions will shape the operation and support of VoteIdaho, campaign finance and lobbyist systems, and the county election management tools used across Idaho’s 44 counties.
No votes were taken during the hearing; the secretary described completed work and asked the committee to consider the ongoing and one‑time funding items.
