Secretary of State asks $400,000 ongoing for voter guide, seeks funds for IT and staffing transition

Secretary of State Phil McGrane told the Joint Finance‑Appropriations Committee the office requests several enhancements for fiscal year 2026, including $400,000 ongoing to design, print and mail a voter guide to Idaho households and one‑time funds to hire and overlap‑train a deputy business director before the current deputy retires.

Christopher Lahoset, the Legislative Services Office analyst, reviewed the office’s budget history and said the Secretary of State’s office has an authorized 35.5 full‑time positions with about half an FTE vacancy at the time of reporting. Lahoset noted a prior one‑time legislative appropriation of $10,000,000 for an elections system upgrade; about $2.5 million of that appropriation has been spent and the remainder has been reappropriated into FY25 for further work.

On specific FY26 enhancement requests, Lahoset summarized the package: - $400,000 ongoing for a statewide voter guide (estimated $300,000 mailing, $100,000 printing) to be published and distributed for primary and general elections; the office has run legislation on this previously and intends to reintroduce it. - One‑time double‑fill personnel funding so a new deputy business director can train alongside the current deputy before retirement; this is intended to preserve institutional knowledge for business filings, not increase FTE. - $287,100 to fund additional recurring software‑as‑a‑service costs for newly adopted campaign finance and lobbyist systems, plus $26,000 one‑time for a federal DMV system upgrade fee. - Modest ongoing funding for IT training, postage increases, and production of the Idaho Blue Book and Constitution publication on the two‑year cycle; and one‑time IT equipment replacement.

Secretary McGrane described the voter guide as his top initiative and said public polling shows strong demand for a guide that includes candidate information and sample ballots. McGrane said the cost is spread across fiscal years because primaries and general elections fall in different fiscal years, hence the year‑to‑year appropriation request.

On the previous $10 million elections systems upgrade, McGrane said the office has spent roughly $2.9 million and has about $7.1 million remaining; he said bids for the core election management system ranged from about $5.6 million to $9.4 million, and the office is in the vendor evaluation phase. McGrane also said the campaigns/lobbyist software and Vote Idaho tools rolled out this cycle have been used heavily by counties and voters and that the office is proceeding using an RFP process.

Committee members asked about recurring versus one‑time costs, the rationale for the double‑fill deputy hire, access to DMV validation services, postage cost increases, and whether the voter guide should be printed every election or just some years. McGrane and Lahoset answered and said they would supply additional details if needed.

No committee action or vote occurred at the hearing.