WASHINGTON -- More than a dozen key California election officials who serve 44 percent of California voters have signed an open letter to Congressional leadership seeking $20 billion in funding to local and state election administrators for secure election infrastructure over the next 10 years.

Despite the designation from the Department of Homeland Security in 2017 that election infrastructure is “is vital to our national interests,” we don’t fund it that way. The letter comes as state and local officials continue to push for funding from Congress and as threats against election workers continue to increase. In California, the most recent recall election alone has been estimated to cost more than $200 million. 

“Maintaining the integrity and accountability of our nation’s elections infrastructure and the administration of elections across the country is paramount to the protection and preservation of our representative form of governance,” said Dean Logan, Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk for Los Angeles County, California. “Adequate and ongoing federal resources are a critical component to ensuring elections remain free, fair, secure, and transparent.”

“Our state has been through the most challenging elections imaginable since 2020: the COVID-19 crisis, huge shifts to all vote-by-mail ballots with in-person voting opportunities, unprecedented dissemination of disinformation, assaults on our election security and accuracy, and threats against election officials. Each of those challenges was extraordinarily costly and put deep strain on our county resources,” the letter reads.

Read the full letter here.

“I’m proud of the California election officials who are making their voice heard about what they need to continue to deliver safe and inclusive elections year after year,” said Tiana Epps Johnson, executive director of the Center for Tech and Civic Life. “From cybersecurity to personnel, to the increased cost of paper for ballots, the needs and costs for election departments are only growing.”

Federal election funding will strengthen administration and operations, bolstering election security and resilience and improving voter confidence in our system. With federal funding, election departments will be able to make urgently-needed modernizations, including:

• Replacing outdated voting machines

• Upgrading voter registration databases and websites

• Investing in election management equipment, including ballot sorters, envelope openers and stuffers, and ballot verification technology

• Upgrading local election management systems, including software

• Investing in physical infrastructure (including real estate) to allow local election secure facilities for storage of election equipment and materials

• Bolstering systems to execute election audits

• Strengthening cybersecurity posture

• Investing in staffing and operations

A previous letter by the Election Infrastructure Initiative was signed by over 250 bipartisan local and state elected officials and election administrators from around the country. The letter states that a significant investment in election infrastructure “will give local election offices the ability to modernize and secure equipment, and the certainty to plan and execute professional, accurate elections with integrity for voters for years to come.”  

Only three times since 2010 has Congress appropriated funding that included local election departments: In 2018 and 2020, Congress appropriated $380 million and $425 million respectively in Help America Vote Act (HAVA) Election Security Funds. It also allocated an additional $400 million in emergency 2020 election support funding through the CARES Act.

###