These federal grants can help ease multiplying election threats

Coffee County, Georgia, abruptly severed its connection to the state’s voter registration system last month after it suffered what investigators believe was a ransomware attack.

The county in southeastern Georgia first rose to prominence in January 2021 when supporters of then-President Donald Trump broke into an election office there in an effort to find evidence to support their false claims that the election was stolen. 

There is no evidence that the Georgia Registered Voter Information System was compromised. But the latest attack serves as a real-world example of the vulnerabilities faced by election offices nationwide, months out from a major presidential contest.

It also comes as cybersecurity company Mandiant, a Google subsidiary, has warned of the myriad cyber threats that global elections face. Its new report cautioned that potential targets include a “wide variety of entities” beyond voting machines and voter registries, and that cyber operations often target the “major players” involved in campaigns more than actual infrastructure.

As a result, the report advised organizations to “harden infrastructure against common attacks.” But that’s easier said than done given the dire state of election funding.

Earlier this year, county officials met with the Republican chairman of the House committee with jurisdiction over election laws to press for more federal funding. 

At the meeting, Christine Walker, the clerk of Jackson County, Oregon, echoed the concerns of other county election leaders when she said, “We have this laundry list of things that we can do to better secure our physical security or facilities, as well as the cybersecurity realm. But we don't have the funding to be able to do those projects.”

Indeed, election services rank among the least funded sectors of government at the state and federal levels. President Joe Biden’s fiscal year 2025 budget proposal provided $1.6 billion in the first year and $375 million per year thereafter for grants administered through the Election Assistance Commission, but that is unlikely to go anywhere given congressional election-year politics.

And the private money that helped cash-strapped election offices during the 2020 election is increasingly becoming off-limits as states ban private donations.

However, money is still available, especially through the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Election Assistance Commission. Getting the message out about that money, though, is challenging given the high turnover of elections officials in recent years.

“It's not surprising; newer elected officials are less aware that these resources are out there,” said Lawrence Norden, senior director of the Elections and Government Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. “Funding has gone off a cliff, at least at the federal level, then on top of that, I think a lot of officials are less aware, in part because of the turnover, of the resources that are out there for them.”

Those funds include election security grants under the Help America Vote Act, administered by the EAC, which are awarded directly to state officials and then passed down to localities. The Federal Emergency Management Agency offers its own homeland security grant program, which can be used for elections as DHS has designated them as a priority area.

And DOJ’s Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program provides funding to enhance public safety, with election security deemed eligible to receive awards as of 2022.

In addition to funding, technical and expert assistance is also available. Free federal assessments, for example, can help focus lawmakers’ minds when it comes to finding money. Derek Bowens, director of elections for Durham County, North Carolina, recalled making an unsuccessful request to the county commissioners in 2017 for a new consolidated elections office. 

But in 2018, not long after elections were designated critical infrastructure, a free CISA security evaluation found several deficiencies. That assessment was crucial in convincing elected county officials to spend $24 million on a new facility.

“[The funding] wouldn't have happened without the CISA assessment because it really told the story, it was an official document, a classified document that we could use in our narrative to confirm what we already knew,” Bowens said. “There wouldn't be a new facility for the board of elections without federal support.”

But elections offices still need funding. In a recent Brennan Center survey of local election officials, more than 80% said they need their annual budget to grow in the next five years to meet their administrative and security needs, which have become increasingly complex. Elections officials’ work used to be mostly clerical in nature, but staff now need expertise in cybersecurity, human resources, technology, procurement and physical security.

After Durham County opened its new centralized office in its namesake city, for instance, Bowens said that elections offices around the country soon started receiving envelopes laced with fentanyl, as part of a growing trend of physical threats against workers.

Election officials these days also must be more public facing to combat misinformation about the role they play.

“What often gets lost is that the challenges change, and we have to adjust to them,” Norden said. “But election officials are very adaptable. I'm certainly not happy that so many election officials have been driven from office, and it's a problem we need to address. But at the same time, I do think it's important to acknowledge a lot of the new people who have come in are great and committed, and they're coming in with their eyes open about what the new challenges are.”

Access to more resources is a longer-term mission, something Bowens said will require officials to be more tactical in how they ask for appropriations.

“It's a long game sometimes, and it's really a strategic story,” he said. “I really believe that the federal assistance with these assessments are golden, in addition to opportunities to obtain federal funding, where and when that's available.”