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1 1 (September 26, 2023)

handle is hein.crs/govemym0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research &e Informing the Iegislative debate since 191 September 26, 2023 Private Funding for Election Administration State and local election offices sometimes receive private donations of money, goods, or services to help them carry out their work. Following the onset of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the 2020 election cycle, private individuals funded grant programs for state and local election administration that were particularly notable in their scale and sources. Those grant programs- and the role of private funding in election administration in general-have been subjects of congressional interest in subsequent Congresses, including in hearings and legislation in the 118th Congress. This In Focus offers an overview of private funding for election administration. It starts by providing some background on funding for election administration in general and the role of private funding in the 2020 election cycle. It then describes some proposals from Members of Congress and federal agency officials for responding to private involvement in funding elections. Funding for Election Adrministration The federal government has provided some grant funding and agency support for election administration (for more on federal elections grant programs, see CRS Report R46646, Election Administration: Federal Grant Funding for States and Localities, by Karen L. Shanton). However, there is no ongoing federal mechanism for funding the general expenses of administering elections. Those costs are covered, instead, by states and localities. Exactly how financial responsibility for election administration is distributed between the state and local levels varies by state. Some states perform and fund most election administration duties at the state level. A more common arrangement is for localities to cover most of the costs, with support from the state for certain types of elections or expenses. For example, some states share the costs of elections when state-level candidates are on the ballot, and most provide for the statewide voter registration databases required by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). Private Funding in the 2020 Elections The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in the 2020 election cycle led many states and localities to change the way they ran their elections that year. Concerns about the health risks posed by close contact prompted changes to in- person voting, such as distributing personal protective equipment (PPE) to voters or election workers, increasing access to curbside voting, and relocating polling places. Health and safety concerns also led many states to expand mail voting for 2020. Some states that required an excuse to vote by mail suspended the excuse requirement for some or all voters for the 2020 elections, for example, and some states extended their deadlines for requesting a mail ballot. The changes states and localities made to their election processes in 2020-along with other effects of the pandemic, such as increased difficulty recruiting election workers and obtaining paper for ballots-introduced new costs. For example, many jurisdictions had to invest in supplemental pay for election workers or in new workers or equipment to process a higher volume of mail ballots. The federal government provided some funding to help cover the additional costs. Congress included $400 million in HAVA funding in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act (P.L. 116-136) specifically to help states address the effects of the pandemic on the 2020 elections. Other HAVA grant funding, including funds provided for FY2018 (P.L. 115- 141) and FY2020 (P.L. 116-93), could also be applied to COVID-related costs. However, some states and localities reported that the federal contributions did not address all of their new needs. Private businesses donated goods and services to help meet some of those needs. For example, professional sports teams in some cities made their stadiums available to serve as vote centers, and various companies gave PPE. Some private individuals also donated funding for grants to state and local election offices. According to media reports, some particularly prominent sources of private funds included the following: * Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg. Chan and Zuckerberg reported committing up to $419.5 million in the 2020 election cycle for grants to be distributed by two nonprofit organizations: the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL, $350 million) and the Center for Election Innovation & Research (CEIR, $69.5 million). According to grant documents and other reporting, the CTCL funding was broadly available for ensuring safe and secure election administration and the CEIR grants were for voter education. The organizations reported making the funding available to all election offices responsible for administering election activities and to all 50 states and the District of Columbia, respectively, and, with the exception of one state that withdrew its application, funding all of the requests they received. * Arnold Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger donated $2.5 million to be distributed by the Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy at the University of Southern California. The institute reported that the funding was for supporting access to voting in states that had historically been required to submit changes to their election laws for federal preclearance under the Voting Rights Act and that it awarded grants to all eligible applicants (for more on preclearance, see CRS Report te

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