Saline County receiving $130K grant for election security upgrades
After increased regulations were put forward for election security in Kansas, Saline County is receiving a grant to help upgrade its own election security.
Jamie Doss, the Saline County Clerk and election officer, said the $130,945 grant comes from the Kansas Secretary of State's office through federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) funding.
"(These increased) regulations include physical security of our equipment, our (staff), our ballots and the election offices," Doss said.
According to Doss, the secretary of state's office announced that grant money would be available for all 105 Kansas counties, as each county is tasked with making the upgrades and improvements to its own election office.
For the Saline County Election Office, the improvements are set to include the enhancement of electronic access control for secure rooms, adding extra layers of security for both equipment and the office.
The grant from the state does require the county to match part of the funding, so Saline County will be responsible for 10%, or just over $13,000 of the total grant, which needed to be approved by the Saline County Board of Commissioners.
Commissioner and Chair of the board Joe Hay asked staff about that $13,000, as Doss's presentation to the board on Tuesday showed there would be no fiscal impact to the county if the funds were received.
"Is there already funds in the budget for that ($13,000)?" Hay asked.
County Administrator Phillip Smith-Hanes said that the county's responsibility would come from an equipment reserve fund.
"We had previously put $50,000 aside, in that fund, for election equipment replacement, so that is what we propose to use for that 10% match," Smith-Hanes said.
Commissioner Bob Vidricksen thanked Doss for applying for this grant, as the regulations would still need to be met for election security.
"If you'd have let that (grant) go by, we would've had a much larger responsibility to the county, so thank you for doing that," Vidricksen said.
In the end, the commission approved the acceptance of the grant and the 10% match from the county.
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Other Saline County Commission business
The Saline County Commission meeting also included the following:
Approval of a grant request for hazardous materials emergency preparedness by Saline County Emergency Management.
Approval of the creation of a new budget department within the county's financial system for facility planning and maintenance.
Update from the county planning and zoning department.
A 10-minute executive session to discuss potential litigation with legal counsel. No action was taken after the session.
This article originally appeared on Salina Journal: Saline County gets $130K from state for election security upgrades
