A new report released today by election security experts provides an in-depth look at the equipment, staffing, supplies, and other costs of administering elections this year that keep voters and election workers safe from the coronavirus while remaining open, accessible, secure, and fair. The authors of Ensuring Safe Elections: Federal Funding Needs for State and Local Governments During the Pandemic worked closely with election officials in five states with varied election systems to develop state-specific profiles of their expenses.
The CARES Act included $400 million in federal funding for state and local governments’ election needs. The total need of the five states featured in Ensuring Safe Elections is at least $414 million.
Experts at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, the R Street Institute, and the University of Pittsburgh Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security authored Ensuring Safe Elections. They profiled Georgia, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.