In Their Own Words: Rural Election Officials on How Nonpartisan Grant Funding Helped Lead to a Safe, Secure Election in 2024
The Center for Tech and Civic Life administered the 2024 nonpartisan Rural and Nonmetro Election Infrastructure Grant program by granting over $3.7 million to rural and nonmetro jurisdictions to help bridge the funding gap for administering safe and secure elections around the country.
Election officials around the country shared stories about how the grant funding helped them administer safe, secure and inclusive elections. In total 358 offices across 15 states were approved to receive over $3.7 million.
The majority of offices represent the smallest jurisdiction size (up to 5,000 eligible voters), receiving grants of up to $5,000. But grantees also included small sized offices (5,001-25,000 eligible voters) and medium-sized offices (25,000-100,000 eligible voters).
Election officials shared important stories about how the grant program helped strengthen their election work, including:
“Many of our voters stop on their way home from work, so to have a well lit parking lot was great. It felt safer and our sign to remind people to stop was visible.”
“The grant allowed me to recruit and train 14 additional volunteer poll workers and surprise them with a gift card for a local business as a thank you.”
“Our voting booths are over 40 years old and were broken and hard to put together without getting hurt. The new ones pop right up and take so much less time to assemble – injury free!”
“We had heaters under the tables by the front door to keep our Election workers warm. We used waterproof storage bins to keep our ballots from getting damp in our vault … Without this grant we would have really struggled.”
“Honestly, in a town with an annual budget of $400 for election supplies, this grant had a huge impact. I was able to stock up on things I need for elections for years to come *and* I had enough left to buy many of the items on my elections wish list, like desk lamps (no longer will our volunteers have to use their phone flashlights to see the voter checklist after sunset!).”
“I am not sure how we would have managed to timely process all the absentee ballots without the additional manpower.”
“I am so excited to have these doors both open the way they should function and LOCK! I’ve worried for the past two years in my job, especially during an election, knowing that I really had no way of securing the doors both effectively and safely.”
“We were able to partner with TextMyGov to better communicate with our over 35,000 voters.”
One common thread from election officials is that many jurisdictions of all sizes intended to use grant funding to improve voting system security, with spending running the gamut from purchasing fireproof safes to store ballot materials, installing security cameras, bulletproof glass or locks in buildings, to on-site deputies providing security for voters and staff in polling places.
Several offices reported intending to purchase new computers; one office has computers that are over 10 years old, and at least two offices intended to purchase laptops so their staff would not have to use their personal computers for activities like voter registration. Another office reported that their electronic poll book needed to be replaced as it cannot be updated to Windows 11 and will no longer be secure after 2024.