State and local election officials plead with Congress for election security funding

150 active and retired officials from across the country asked Senate and House appropriations leaders to set aside $400 million for the next fiscal year.

As the Trump administration takes a hatchet to the federal government’s election security work and attempts to place conditions on funding to states, state and local election officials are pleading with lawmakers to provide robust support  they say  is crucial to keeping American elections secure.

In a letter sent to leaders on the House and Senate Appropriations committees this week, 150 active and retired officials from across the country asked Congress to set aside $400 million next fiscal year for election security grant funding under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).

“The federal government shares with state and local governments the responsibility to overcome funding shortfalls in the most essential charge our government carries: to ensure safe, secure, and effective elections,” the officials wrote. “Yet, Congress has recently provided inconsistent and insufficient funding to meet these requirements.”

HAVA, passed by Congress in 2002, has funneled billions of dollars to states over the past two decades, which have been used to replace older voting machines, conduct security training for staff, harden physical and digital protections for election systems and polling locations, and other improvements.

But in recent years the program’s funding has dried up substantially, and GOP leaders on the Hill have indicated waning support for the initiative. While the Biden administration requested $300 million for HAVA grants last year, Congress has approved just $70 million to states over the past two budget cycles.

Last year, House Appropriations Chair Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., and other Republicans on the committee voted to zero out funding for HAVA grants while also dramatically slashing the budget of the Election Assistance Commission, the bipartisan agency responsible for disbursing the grant money.

“While [prior] funding has been welcome, it falls far short of the substantial and sustained investment necessary to ensure that all eligible Americans can exercise their fundamental right to vote,” the state officials continued.

HAVA grants follow a strict formula based on the size and population of every state, but election officials are also asking that Congress adjust the program to ensure that more money trickles down to local jurisdictions that often face even harsher budget constraints when it comes to funding election security improvements.

“In addition to the funding request above, we also urge you to include a requirement that two-thirds of future funding allocations be passed through directly to localities, to ensure that counties and municipalities have the resources they need to run safe and secure elections, regardless of their size and population,” they wrote.

As state election officials press Congress, the Trump administration has been searching for ways to cut off HAVA funding for states that don’t implement their preferred election policies.Election experts have told CyberScoop that the executive branch has no constitutional authority to dictate election rules to states, and a federal court rolled back some of the provisions in a March executive order, though the White House and the Democratic and civil groups suing have all said they intend to pursue the matter further on appeal.

In most cities, nobody owns the whole network

July’s intrusions reached water controllers that sat on a cellular link no city network scan would find. Naming an owner and paying for the fix are decisions…

Election official says Tina Peters would be consultant, won’t have access to election systems

SCOTUS tosses one of two injunctions against Trump USPS mail-in ballot rules

Government

• FBI officials say AI is bolstering adversaries, emphasizing need to focus on cyber basics, patching

• Feds accuse China of ‘systematic’ distillation of U.S. AI models

• CIA’s Michael Ellis says cyber intelligence is changing how the agency operates

• The G7 tells industry to hurry up and prep for post-quantum encryption

Technology

• European parliament members call for slowdown of Serbia’s EU entry over spyware use

• FCC proposes public scorecard to rate telecoms on anti-robocall efforts

• Pegasus, NoviSpy variant spyware found on devices of Serbian activists

• Wyden seeks upgraded NSA security guidance on commercial VPN use

Threats

• Chinese espionage groups swarm to exploit triple-link chain of zero-days

• Microsoft discloses two actively exploited zero-days among 974 vulnerabilities

• Russian national extradited to US for alleged involvement in bank-account takeover scheme

• Attackers exploit zero-days in consistently besieged SonicWall product

Policy

• ‘Watershed 250’ test program in Texas looks to private sector for water cybersecurity help

• Former sexual abuse victims say Grok used their images, videos to train deepfake capabilities

• Cyber threats nudge Trump to sign executive order on foreign equipment in U.S. energy infrastructure

• Bipartisan Senate bill aims to prepare energy sector for Q-Day