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With the U.S. election season underway, some state election officials are expressing frustration that Congress has yet to allocate the federal funds they depend on to help cover the costs of protecting their systems against potential attacks, upgrading equipment, and training staff.
Election officials face a long list of challenges this year, including possible cyberattacks by foreign governments, ransomware attacks by criminal gangs, and the persistence of electoral misinformation that has led to the harassment of election officials and undermined public trust.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson described it as "demoralizing and disappointing" that the federal government has not committed to investing in this year's presidential elections.
"We are managing federal elections that are the basis of who holds power at the federal level and trying to manage a lot of risks and challenges that have only increased in recent years (...) It makes us feel like we are on our own," said Benson, a Democrat.
Since the 2016 elections and the federal government's decision to add the nation's voting systems to its list of critical infrastructure, Congress has sent $995 million to the states to cover electoral administration and security tasks.
In Colorado, the money has been used to develop a system that allows voters to track their ballots and pay for the training of election officials. Florida officials allocated the money to enhance the security of the state's voter registration system.
Elsewhere, federal funds have been used to replace voting equipment and add cybersecurity personnel.
Most of the funding was allocated before the 2020 elections when states bolstered cybersecurity defenses, and it has been depleted. Another $400 million was supposed to be allocated for election-related expenses related to the 2020 pandemic.
The last part of election-related funding was $75 million approved by Congress in December 2022. State allocations ranged from $5.8 million for California to $1 million for Nevada.
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"Just the elections in Los Angeles cost $75 million," said Kathy Boockvar, former director of election officials in Pennsylvania.
Negotiations on the federal budget have been mired in partisan disputes, and agencies mostly operate with approved spending levels for 2023.
Congress has only been able to pass temporary funding plans, covering a few months at a time. The next deadline is March 1, when the most recent temporary funding plan expires for some departments and a week later for others. The government faces the possibility of a shutdown if new funds are not approved.
Even if an agreement is reached, there is no guarantee it will include new funds for elections. Last year, House Republicans labeled election security grants as "extraneous spending" and did not allocate money for it in their spending bill. Instead, they have focused on initiatives that would prohibit private organizations from providing money to election offices.
In North Carolina, state election officials have had to make cuts in other areas for election security, for example, a six-person data team has been reduced to one full-time position and one part-time collaborator.
Currently, a Senate proposal of $75 million for election security is being negotiated as part of the final spending package.
Wisconsin election officials have used previous federal money to grant subsidies to local election offices that have helped improve their technological support; they have also purchased new voting equipment and mail-in ballot envelopes, said Meagan Wolfe, a non-partisan administrator of the election commission.
Meanwhile, New Mexico has used federal money to help cover the costs of its election security program.
In Minnesota, the state has also used federal money to create grants for local election officials for the upgrade of voting systems, including voter registries and electronic tabulators.