Amid growing concern about the integrity of the nation’s election systems, President Trump gave the federal agency charged with coordinating efforts to ensure accurate and secure voting a slight funding increase as part of his fiscal 2021 budget request to Congress, but one expert says it would not be nearly enough.
On Monday, the White House sent Congress a $4.8 trillion budget request for fiscal 2021 that would increase military spending by 0.3% and decrease non-defense spending by 5%. For the bipartisan and independent Election Assistance Commission, the plan proposed allocating a little over $13 million, of which $1.5 million would be transferred to the National Institute of Standards and Technology. This would represent a $300,000 increase over fiscal 2020 enacted levels, after subtracting a one-time allocation for relocation expenses from the 2020 total.
While some election security experts applauded the slight funding boost in Trump’s proposal, others say more is needed for the agency that certifies voting systems and serves as an information clearinghouse for best practices in election administration.
Aquene Freechild, co-director of the consumer advocacy nonprofit Public Citizen’s “Democracy Is For People” campaign, said the increase was “a welcome improvement after years of cuts” since “it’s the federal government’s role to help states and localities” administer elections, test voting machine systems and make sure they are secure from foreign hacking, ballot fraud and other risks.
However, Meredith McGehee, executive director for the nonprofit Issue One, said more funding is still needed given “concerns over election security, foreign interference and the general distrust about how our elections are proceeding” for the federal agency “charged with ensuring elections are run fairly, efficiently and effecti ..
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