BY JEFF CHUDZINSKINorth Country This Week

CANTON -- St. Lawrence County officials are taking steps to assist the Board of Elections after legislators passed four resolutions to accept grant funding and modify the Board of Elections' budget.

The first resolution passed during the July 8 operations committee meeting allows the chair to sign contracts requesting grants extension for the 2024 absentee ballot pre-paid postage grant.

According to Jennie Bacon, Democratic Chair for the Board of Elections, the state has extended the grant deadlines to March 31, 2025 for grants that have an unexpended balance. The state Board of Elections is also increasing the amount available to the St. Lawrence County Board of Elections, officials say.

"This grant will pay for the postage for all absentee and early vote by mail ballots," she told legislators.

She said the grant will pay for postage both ways, going to and from voters, since the county is now required to cover all expenses.

The second resolution passed allows the chair to sign an Early Voting Expansion Grant extension, which will allow the county to roll over the funds from the grant. State officials again extended the grant deadline to March 31, 2025.

County officials say the balance of the grant is currently $19,653 and will be rolled over.

Bacon said those funds will only be used for expenses related to early voting and will likely be used for on-demand printers for early voting sites.

"We seem to be slowing down a lot because the printers just don't last that long, unfortunately," she said.

She said in election years like 2024, which is a presidential election year, the Board of Elections always sees a significant increase in voter turnout. She said that in off-year elections turnout drops, something they would like to change.

"Obviously we can't increase turnout by making people go vote," she said.

Republican Chair Tom Nichols said the Board of Elections continues to attempt to get stories to the public to increase voter turnout.

"We continue to try to get stories out there through interviews with the press, whether that's television, newspapers or online. We send out press releases as well," he said.

But Nichols commented that despite those efforts, "it's a crap shoot to get stories printed."

"We keep trying to get something that will catch people's eye," he said.

In response, Legislator Ben Hull asked Bacon and Nichols how the legislature could assist in publicizing elections.

Both Bacon and Nichols responded, saying social media posts and shares can be helpful, along with engaging with town and village governments to better publicize the dates related to each election cycle.

Nichols said those watching online would then be able to learn more and help further disseminate the information.

Though efforts to raise awareness have ramped up in recent years, both Bacon and Nichols said voter turnout remains about the same.

"As far as brand new voters,I don't think it's changed very much," Nichols said.

The third resolution passed is to accept a Cybersecurity Remediation Grant to cover expenses related to technical equipment.

According to the resolution, the state has extended grant deadlines to March 31, 2025 for grants with unexpended balances.

The funds remaining for St. Lawrence County currently is $42,275.

The final resolution authorizes the chair to sign contracts for grant extensions for the Technology Innovation and Election Resource (Tier) Grant Program.

The resolution would allow for $219,823.28 to be rolled over with the state extending the grant deadline to March 31, 2025.

The resolutions will now move to the full board for final approval in August.