Governor says he’s found money to meet federal voter requirements

Iowa’s Governor says he’s found 423,000 dollars in unspent state funds to provide the matching money that’ll bring in $8.4 million from the feds for purchasing new voting machines. Vilsack made the move after Republican lawmakers balked at providing the money outright without gaining changes in Iowa voting proceedures. Vilsack says Iowa has a reputation of being a leader in clean elections. Vilsack says the ability to buy new voting equipment and offer more training for poll workers through the federal grants will only enhance that reputation. Vilsack says it’s “incumbent on all of us to make this thing happen” and the Governor says he hopes legislators in future years will appropriate the money to provide the state match for the federal grants. This afternoon, Secretary of State Chet Culver sent the confirmation of the state matching commitment to the Federal Election Commission. Culver says Iowa’s now in compliance with the requirements of the “Help America Vote Act” and will now move into the implementation phase. That will involve the purchase of hundreds of new voting machines, and creation of a new voter registration computer system at the state level. For the current year, Vilsack’s transferring $423,000 from a state technology fund, money he says went unused in the just-concluded state fiscal year.