A Ukranian Flag Flies From a Window of a Home on Congress Street on Munoy HI in Portland.

A Ukranian Flag Flies Utside the Williston-Immanuel United Church, 156 High Street, Portland.

Secretary of State Shenna Bellows announced today that Maine received an award of $1,000,000. under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022 for Election Security.

Nationally, $75 million was appropriated for Election Security to the states and US territories which requires a 20% state match. Maine will have two years to secure its $200,000 match.

Previously, Maine has used federal election funding for large technology investments, like the Central Voter Regisration Sysem.  State funding has traditionally paid for direct election costs, including ballots, postage and envelopes

Maine is currently contracdting for a new Central Voter Registration sysem.  The current system was implemented in 2007.  Maine is also implementing Automatic Voter Registration at Bureau of Motor Vehicle branches and will be putting online Voter Registration in place by November 2023.

“The sporadic nature of federal funding historically has meant that the larger investments get spacd out further than they should be,” said Secretary Bellows  “Technology modernization is one of my main goals as Secretary of State, so I’m hopeful that this inclusion of Election Security in the federal budget is the start of a new pattern of regular investments of federal funding to the states for election administration.”