Committee approves $786K grant toward election infrastructure

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- A grant totaling more than $780,000 was approved by Milwaukee's Judiciary and Legislative Committee Thursday to support election infrastructure. 

The grant is coming from the nonprofit Cities Forward, a non-partisan organization aiming to help cities increase voter participation. 

These funds will go toward the Milwaukee Elections Committee. 

The commission's director pointed out the referendum on April's ballot that could prohibit them from getting funding like this in the future.

"So, this proposal was also put together with that knowledge and that we would expend all of these funds before April 2 as well," said Claire Woodall, Milwaukee Election Commission director.

The money is slated for faster vote-counting machines, new voting machines and more lighting and security cameras around the elections operation center.