Pinal County receives Help America Vote Act grant funding

It’s been almost seven years since President George W. Bush signed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) into law.

On July 7 Pinal County received another benefit from HAVA that will go to enhance voter registration and education, along with poll worker training and the purchasing of voting machines.

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett visited the county recorder’s office on Tuesday morning to present the Pinal County Elections Department with a check for $219,989. Pinal County’s voter registration received $73,330.

“This money comes from the remainder of a grant the state received in 2002 under HAVA,” Secretary of State Bennett said. We received $50 million from the federal government to upgrade the state’s election equipment. Under then-Secretary of State Jan Brewer (now Governor Brewer) we spent about $35 million to bring Arizona counties up to HAVA standards. The remaining $15 million will go to all 15 counties for election enhancement purposes.”

Secretary of State Bennett said that each county would receive grant monies based on a formula of total registered voters, total population and number of voting precincts.

“I plan on visiting each of our counties this week to award them with HAVA money,” the Secretary of State said. “After we visit Pinal County this morning, we are off to Gila County and then over to Maricopa County. We are going to be busy this week.”

Under the conditions of accepting the grant money from the state, Pinal County must use the funds by June 30, 2011. The county must also place the money in an interest bearing account until it is spent.

“We are grateful for the assistance,” said Chairman David Snider. “It is always a challenge to recruit qualified poll workers. This money is a welcome sight to help us in that effort along with other election issues.”

Supervisor Bryan Martyn said a growing county can always use monetary help with elections.

“Pinal County is still one of the fastest growing counties in the entire nation,” Supervisor Martyn pointed out. “I’m sure we will have more precincts for our residents in 2010 or 2012. This money will help us purchase equipment for those new precincts.”

In 2008’s November presidential election, Pinal County had a 69 percent voter turnout. There are currently 88 polling places in the county.

Submitted photo