In a major departure from his previous budgets, California Governor Jerry Brown's new state budget includes $134.3 million to fund new voting equipment.
"This is a welcome development and will help build California voters' confidence in the integrity and security of our voting systems," said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, which has consistently supported increased state funding to help pay for California's election costs since 2013.
Since taking office in 2011, Governor Brown has repeatedly suspended funding for mandated election programs in state budgets. While that policy is likely to continue, the addition of $134.3 million to the budget to help pay up to 50 percent of counties' costs to acquire updated voting equipment respresents a signficant influx of election-related funding to counties.