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2005 General Session
HB 80 would have created a permanent fund to pay for replacement and maintenance of voting systems and statewide voter registration system, and other costs that are required by the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA).
Federal money that comes to Wyoming to help pay for requirements of the HAVA would have gone into the new HAVA Trust Fund. In addition, HB 80 would have appropriated $10 million from the general fund to go into the HAVA Trust Fund. If additional federal funds were received by the state to implement the HAVA, an equal amount of state money would have been returned to the general fund.
Following the 2002 federal election, the HAVA was designed to reform our election process nationwide. The HAVA called upon states to replace outdated voting systems, to educate voters on voting procedures and their voting rights, to make polling places more accessible to disabled citizens, to create statewide voter registration databases, to improve ballot review procedures, and to develop provisional ballots to guarantee that eligible voters are never turned away at polling places.
To be eligible for major federal grants to implement election process reforms, states must have an implementation plan and a fund in the state treasury dedicated to it. States must provide a five percent match of federal funds.
Supporters of HB 80 noted that creation of this account was necessary to ensure that future election costs required by the HAVA will not become an unfunded mandate for Wyoming counties.
There was no particular opposition to HB 80, with one notable exception.
The House Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee unanimously passed HB 80, as did the House Appropriations Committee. Then the full House unanimously passed the bill, and after introduction in the Senate, the Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously passed the bill.
In spite of this string of unanimous votes, Senate Majority Floor Leader John Schiffer (R-S22, Kaycee) pocket vetoed the bill, by refusing to schedule it for floor debate and a vote before the Senate Committee of the Whole.