State lawmakers failed to include matching money in the budget they passed yesterday for federal funds to help administer the 2012 elections. The state must provide 660 thousand dollars in order to receive four million dollars in matching funds. It's authorized by the Help America Vote act, passed by Congress in 2002. Lawmakers included money in previous House and Senate budget versions, but not the consensus budget. Brent Laurenz heads the North Carolina Center for Voter Education, a non-profit, non-partisan organization in Raleigh.
Brent Laurenz: It's a pretty sound investment, you know you put in six hundred sixty thousand dollars, you get out and you get four million dollars in federal funds. Seems like a no-brainer, I'm not sure if politics was involved or not actually. Either way, it's very unfortunate that it did not end up in the budget.
Laurenz says without the funding, voters can expect longer lines and more confusion this November as they go to the polls.