Connecticut’s Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas has urged lawmakers to reject proposed budget cuts to her office because they might undermine election security.
Governor Ned Lamont’s budget request this year seeks a $900,000 cut to the $3.5 million budget that funds election operations at her office.
“This is a poor time to cut anything related to voter security, list maintenance, and just voter confidence,” Thomas said, appearing before a special subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee on Tuesday.
The funds are essential for ongoing legally required purposes, including election security, she said.
“You can’t have 169 towns building voter registration systems, for example, because all the data has to work together,” Thomas said.
The targeted elections operation budget includes $1 million for the ongoing replacement of the state’s new voter registration system and $300,000 to maintain the state’s election management system.
Lawmakers have restored some of the funding cuts to the Secretary of the State’s office in previous years.
