Carol Aichele: Election security is national security — Congress should treat it that way
In the lead up to the 2024 elections, investing in America’s election infrastructure is one of the most important things federal lawmakers can do to ensure the safety and security of our elections while supporting the staffing needs facing election offices in Pennsylvania and across the country.
Unfortunately, House appropriators recently approved their Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill — the vehicle through which Congress provides election security grants for states and counties — without any funding to secure our nation’s election infrastructure. This lack of federal support for such a crucial matter of national security continues a concerning trend that has only gotten worse.
In years past, lawmakers in Congress allocated around $400 million annually to support election security initiatives nationwide. While still not enough to meet all needs facing local, county, and state election offices, this level of funding was a sign that lawmakers understood the importance of strengthening and modernizing our election infrastructure to protect our elections from an array of bad actors.
That makes sense considering the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has routinely highlighted the enhanced threats to the security of America’s elections and the need for enhanced resources to counter these threats and ensure the integrity of the vote. Those threats to our critical election infrastructure now include the potential for interference by hostile foreign governments like China and ransomware attacks by cyber-criminals, either overseas or here at home.
One might think that, because the threats to our elections have only continued to grow in number and complexity, federal investments in election security would have kept pace. However, the opposite has occurred as election security funding continues its downward spiral, plunging from roughly $425 million in FY 2020 to just $55 million in FY 2024 to potentially nothing in FY 2025.
Not only does this lack of funding leave our entire election infrastructure more vulnerable and susceptible to a growing range of sophisticated cyber threats, but it also makes it more difficult for America’s election offices to invest in the most important resource they need: sufficient staffing levels to ensure proper election administration. As the former Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as well as a former member of the Chester County Board of Commissioners, I know counties need funding for new voting machines, materials, training, voter roll maintenance, and mailers for voter notifications — all in addition to the dire need for more election workers and officials to help ensure efficient, accurate and secure election administration.
Hiring and supporting the staff and personnel necessary to run efficient and secure local, county, and state elections is simply not something many election offices can do right now given the lack of federal support for our election infrastructure. Particularly in rural communities throughout Pennsylvania and across the country, these offices are already operating with such limited resources that many election officials are having to foot the bill for basic office supplies and equipment. And because of the mounting pressures on election staff at all levels, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to find able and willing workers.
There has been a lot of talk in Congress about what can be done to reaffirm the public’s trust in the integrity of our election system. It’s a testament to our election officials that public sentiment is as positive as it is. However, more can be done, and Congress should look in the mirror and return federal investments in our election infrastructure to the levels they have previously allocated.
As the federal appropriations process heats up, I urge Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation to help push for at least $400 million in funding for election security in the next fiscal year. With so much at stake, now is not the time for Congress to drop the ball on ensuring the safety and security of our elections.
Carol Aichele is the former Republican Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, having served from 2011–2015, and a former member of the Chester County Board of Commissioners.
Federal “support” for elections is causing the centralization of elections, undermining the independence of jurisdictions, and provides multiple vectors for fraud. Delaware County’s spending on elections, enabled by election integrity grants, has quadrupled the spending on elections since 2020 and has made them less secure. Federal grants have facilitated the outsourcing of many aspects of elections to corporations with proprietary software which are not required to comply with open records requests. No amount of federal meddling will improve confidence in administration of elections. Elections belong to the people.
Ms. Schwartz:
Excellent and illuminating post.
More, please.
Carol,
Thank you for your article. I can’t read the comments since Broad + Liberty updated their format a couple weeks ago. You are aware that illegals in America can get bank loans, mortgages, insurance, driver’s licenses, free healthcare (California & New York) and in-state college tuition? When you apply for a driver’s license, in over 20 states all you have to do is check a box and sign your name – no proof of citizenship required – to vote in U.S. federal elections. With over 30 million noncitizens in the U.S. today, how many of them are being paid to register and vote? You raised a serious issue, but the system seems designed to be corrupt and easily abused.