Carson City — The Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means committees on Saturday approved limited staffing and information-technology funding for the Nevada Secretary of State’s office while rejecting a number of additional positions the office requested to handle election and business-system workloads.

The committees approved funding for several cybersecurity- and IT-related positions the office prioritized, including a master IT professional (Decision Unit E309), an IT manager and IT professional for Las Vegas (E316), IT technician positions for Carson City and Las Vegas (E306 and E307), and a one-year program officer (E304). The motion to approve those selections was offered by Assemblymember Monroe Moreno and seconded by Senator Winn; the motion carried on a voice vote.

The approved positions are intended to help secure and operate the centralized voter registration and election management system (commonly referred to in the hearing as VRAMs or the GRAMA project) and to support Project Orion, the office’s multi-phase business registration and filing replacement. The committee packet notes the office received one-time appropriations in prior sessions (SB 484 and SB 485) for both projects and that parts of those appropriations were reverted by the Interim Finance Committee in April 2025.

At the hearing, the fiscal analyst described the priorities the office provided: a top-priority cloud/security role, additional IT technical support in Las Vegas, personnel for HR and compliance, and multiple administrative positions intended to improve customer service and reduce backlogs. The committee declined a longer list of other requested hires, including a financial analyst, additional compliance investigators, enforcement counsel, and numerous administrative assistants the office had proposed to staff notary and business licensing workloads. Assemblymember Monroe Moreno’s motion explicitly approved certain IT and security-focused roles and rejected the rest of the governor‑recommended list; Senator Winn seconded and the motion passed.

Committees also considered several IT and software purchases. They approved a package that included software training programs, a Java SE software license renewal, a crypto-tracing tool for investigations, and contract support for post‑election tabulation audits (Decision Units E332, E334, E339 and E310). The committee rejected or deferred higher-cost items from the original package (notably portions of the portfolio manager services and certain GIS map data support tied to VRAMs) and instructed fiscal staff to make technical adjustments as needed.

Fiscal staff repeatedly noted that some decision units included operating and equipment costs that did not align with the proposed start dates for positions; staff recommended technical corrections where necessary. The committee provided authority for staff to make those technical adjustments.

Why it matters: The decisions narrow the Secretary of State’s near-term staffing increases toward cybersecurity and core IT support ahead of the 2026 election cycle, while leaving unresolved longer-term customer‑service and compliance staffing requests that the office says are needed to address backlogs and increased workloads.

What the office said: During the hearing, J. Marie Mangoba of the LCB Fiscal Analysis Division summarized the office’s priorities and told the committee the top request was for information security and cloud expertise to ensure the safety of voter and customer data. The office also pointed to a backlog of investigative cases and rising notary workloads as underlying reasons for other position requests.

Looking ahead: The packet and discussion show the VRAMs merger (including Clark County) is targeted for completion before the 2026 election cycle. The committees approved funding for parts of the IT support and audit tools the Secretary of State says are necessary for system security and for validating election outcomes.