States to Get Funding for Ballot Upgrades

States can expect by mid-May to get a long-awaited $2.3 billion in federal help to buy new voting booth equipment and make other election improvements, the head of an electoral reform commission said Monday.

Still, millions of voters again will be using the much maligned punch cards in this fall’s presidential balloting.

Many of the improvements, including plans for statewide computerized voter registration data, aren’t expected to be in place before 2006.

Members of the new Election Assistance Commission assured state officials at a conference Monday that they would expedite the distribution of the $2.3 billion.

In an interview, DeForest B. Soaries, the commission’s chairman, said it was important that the states be given “an absolute commitment from the federal government” that the funds, which have already been approved by Congress, will be provided by a certain date.

Paul DeGregorio, another of the commission members, said that although some changes at polling places were already being seen in the primaries, other improvements would “be pushed off until 2006 because of [states] not getting the money” sooner and delays in getting the commission in place.

In response to the problems in Florida during the 2000 presidential election, Congress in 2002 authorized funds to help states modernize their election systems and created the commission to disburse the money and establish voluntary standards for states on how elections should be conducted.

But so far only about $650 million has been disbursed. The additional $2.3 billion was set aside pending creation of the four-member commission.

State election officials said that although many improvements had been implemented, the delay in getting the federal money has prevented the purchase of new technology and other changes.