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Secretary of State seeks ongoing funding for voter guide, IT subscriptions and staff transition
Summary
Secretary of State Phil McGrane asked the Joint Finance‑Appropriations Committee for several ongoing and one‑time funds including a voter guide appropriation, IT subscription funding, a double‑fill deputy business director and continued investment in election systems.
Secretary of State Phil McGrane and Legislative Services Office analyst Christopher Lahoset presented the Secretary of State's budget to the Joint Finance‑Appropriations Committee, outlining ongoing needs for voter outreach, technology and personnel succession planning.
The office requested ongoing general fund support of $400,000 for a voter guide that would be designed, printed and mailed to Idaho households for each statewide election cycle; Lahoset said the expected FY26 cost split is roughly $300,000 for mailing and $100,000 for printing. McGrane told the committee the voter guide reflects strong public demand: polling and post‑election use of the office’s VoteIdaho site showed voter interest in candidate information and sample ballots.
Other requests included one‑time funding to double‑fill the deputy business director position to enable a year of overlap and training before the current deputy retires (no FTP increase), ongoing funding for software subscriptions and cloud services related to campaign finance and lobbyist systems, $26,000 one‑time to cover a federal upgrade fee for DMV data access (the office will continue to pay small quarterly subscription fees), ongoing IT training funds and periodic requests for the Idaho Blue Book and Constitution distribution. Lahoset also noted a prior one‑time $10 million appropriation for an election software upgrade: about $2.5 million has been spent and the remaining funds were reappropriated into FY25.
McGrane summarized recent IT investments and results: the office rolled out a new campaign finance system, a lobbyist reporting system and the VoteIdaho website, and is evaluating bids for a county election management system upgrade. He said bids for the election management system were in the $5.6 million to $9.4 million range and that $7.1 million remained in the election upgrade appropriation. Committee members asked about frequency of the voter guide, postage inflation (USPS increased first‑class postage from $0.60 to $0.73 since 2022), and the double‑fill approach; McGrane said the ongoing appropriation aligns with alternating primary and general election timing across fiscal years and that the double‑fill is to ensure continuity for business filings and the Uniform Law Commission work the office houses.
No formal vote occurred; the committee asked the office for follow‑up detail on subscription costs and the election management procurement timeline.
