Registrars flag equipment, software and maintenance costs as early voting expands

Peter Gston, Republican registrar of voters speaking for the Registrars' Office, told the committee that the department faces equipment and maintenance pressures as early voting becomes more extensive.

Gston said the Registrars' Office has six employees and that collectively their operations requests were reduced by roughly $33,000 from what they requested. He warned that new tabulators implemented during a pilot will now require municipalities to pay maintenance and licensing estimated at about $20,000 annually; older equipment maintenance was around $8,000. Gston also said the office is transitioning to a new statewide voter-registration system expected online in early July and that initial training is scheduled with the Secretary of State's office.

To address connectivity issues at some polling locations, Gston described a planned purchase of cellular service "pole pads" that would eliminate the need for hotspots in roughly 11 locations that currently lack reliable internet. He said the cost offsets some maintenance pressures and would improve reliability at remote or difficult polling sites.

Gston said the Registrars expect up to 21 days of early voting if there is a primary (14 days if there is not) and that some state-level funding proposals could provide a modest reimbursement to municipalities, but those funds were not guaranteed at the time the budget was assembled.

The committee received the registrars' briefing and will continue budget review; no formal action on equipment procurement occurred at this meeting.