A State is eligible to receive a requirements payment for a fiscal year if the chief executive officer of the State, or designee, in consultation and coordination with the chief State election official, has filed with the Commission a statement certifying that the State is in compliance with the requirements referred to in subsection (b). A State may meet the requirement of the previous sentence by filing with the Commission a statement which reads as follows: “______ hereby certifies that it is in compliance with the requirements referred to in section 253(b) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002.” (with the blank to be filled in with the name of the State involved).
A State may not file a statement of certification under subsection (a) until the expiration of the 45-day period (or, in the case of a fiscal year other than the first fiscal year for which a requirements payment is made to the State under this part, the 30-day period) which begins on the date notice of the State plan under this part is published in the Federal Register pursuant to section 21005(b) of this title.
In this part, the “chief State election official” of a State is the individual designated by the State under section 10 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (42 U.S.C. 1973gg–8) [now 52 U.S.C. 20509] to be responsible for coordination of the State’s responsibilities under such Act.