Unfortunately, local election departments remain severely underfunded after Congress cut Help America Vote Act funding to just $55 million nationwide, which means most rural election offices don’t get any regular funding from the federal government. CTCL’s nonpartisan Rural and Nonmetro Election Infrastructure Grant Program will help local election offices bridge this gap so that they can conduct reliable and secure elections by doing things like modernizing outdated voting technology, improving access to voting for groups like rural voters, seniors, and veterans, and making much-needed infrastructure updates to enhance election security and make voting a smoother process for everyone.
The Rural and Nonmetro Election Infrastructure program is nonpartisan and open to rural and nonmetro jurisdictions that can legally apply for and receive funding to conduct reliable and secure elections as outlined by the U.S. Dept of Homeland Security. Permissible uses of grant funding include key human, physical, and technological assets that the Department has identified as necessary to conduct elections.
CTCL is using the 2023 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes maintained by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to define “rural” and “nonmetro” for this program. Jurisdictions with codes 4-9 on that continuum are considered “rural and nonmetro” for the purposes of this grant program.
Applications are currently open to eligible election offices in 20 states—Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and Wyoming—as well as the U.S. territories. Each jurisdiction that applies will be expected to ensure that accepting grant funds under this program is consistent with applicable law.
Questions about your grant application? Email us at [email protected].
Election officials in rural and nonmetro areas continue to make it clear that one of their most pressing needs is funding. Unfortunately, Congress only included $55 million in funding nationwide for Help America Vote Act (HAVA) grants in the FY24 budget. That means most rural and nonmetro election offices do not receive regular funding from the federal government to administer federal elections. Based on this, where permissible and on a nonpartisan basis, CTCL is focusing philanthropic support on helping rural and nonmetro election offices administer safe, secure, and reliable elections.
CTCL is using the 2023 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes maintained by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, nonmetro counties. Jurisdictions with codes 4-9 on that continuum are considered “rural and nonmetro” for the purposes of this grant program. Learn more about the 2023 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes, including a link to download the data.
You’re eligible to apply for grant funds if your U.S. election office is:
- rural or nonmetro as defined by the 2023 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes 4-9;
- responsible for administering election activities covered by the grant; and
- permitted to accept private funding
Each office is responsible for determining its own eligibility to apply for or accept grant funds under local, state, and federal law.
$2.5 million is currently available for grantmaking through the 2024 Rural and Nonmetro Election Infrastructure Grant Program.
If your election office is eligible to apply for a grant, the amount you may seek is based on the 2022 Citizen Voting Age Population (CVAP) in your jurisdiction. The grant population tiers are provided below.
- 100,001 – 250,000 Citizen Voting Age Population – $100,000
- 25,001 – 100,000 Citizen Voting Age Population – $50,000
- 5,001 – 25,000 Citizen Voting Age Population – $20,000
- 5,000 or fewer Citizen Voting Age Population – $5,000
You may choose to receive less than the offered amount.
Note: Grant population tiers are derived from the size categories included in the Stewards of Democracy research by the Democracy Fund. For the purposes of the grant program, CTCL is using 2022 Citizen Voting Age Population (CVAP) from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Matching funds are not required to apply for this grant.
No, the purpose of the grant is to supplement the funds available to an election office and may not be used to substitute for previously budgeted funds that would otherwise be provided.
To apply for the grant your office will need to provide:
- Office contact information (e.g., address, mailing address, phone, and email)
- The total number of active registered voters in your jurisdiction as of July 1, 2024
- The number of full time staff
- Your jurisdiction’s one-year budget allocated to elections for the fiscal year including July 1, 2024
- A copy of your jurisdiction’s total one-year budget allocated to elections for the fiscal year that includes July 1, 2024
- A description of your intended use of grant funds
- The title and, if known, name of the person or government body authorized to sign a grant agreement
CTCL will only ask you for public, non-confidential information necessary to verify your jurisdiction’s eligibility to apply for funds. We will never ask for non-public, confidential information about your voters or voting systems.
It should take less than an hour to gather materials and complete the application questions.
Eligible election offices can use the funds to cover expenses incurred between July 31, 2024 and December 31, 2024 that are necessary to achieve the public purpose of planning and operationalizing reliable and secure election administration. Examples of covered expenses include, but are not limited to, the key human, physical, and technological assets that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has identified as necessary to conduct elections.
A non-exclusive list of these critical election components and covered expenses is below. If you have an expense that is not listed in these examples, but that is critical to the reliable and secure administration of elections in your jurisdiction, please let us know in your application.
Key Physical Components: Equipment and materials*, facilities, and records that support or provide protection.
- Voting Locations
- Technical Facilities
- Storage Facilities
- Processing Facilities
- Administrative Facilities
- Voting Hardware
*includes basic election administration supplies like pens, postage, stickers, paper, envelopes
Key Technological Components: Hardware and software components critical to supporting election mission, including computers, servers, databases, and other IT systems and assets used to fulfill one of the following functions:
- Voter Registration Systems
- Election Systems
- Election Management Systems
- Tabulation Systems
- Results Reporting
- Public Information Systems
- Electronic Poll Books
- Internal Production Software and Servers
Key Human Components: Personnel with specialized training, certification, knowledge, skills, authorities, or roles whose absence could cause undesirable consequences or hamper the election security mission.
- Strategic and Operational Positions
- Temporary/Seasonal Support Positions
The person who submits the application must be authorized to do so and will be your election office’s point of contact for the grant. We leave it to you to determine who that should be.
You’ll be able to submit your grant application beginning August 2, 2024. Applications close December 13, 2024 or when funding is exhausted.
Contact [email protected] with any questions about the grant program.
After you submit your application, CTCL anticipates that it will take about 2 weeks to verify your eligibility. The disbursement timeline will depend on your local process for approving the grant agreement.
You can choose to receive the grant via wire transfer, ACH, or check. Estimated receipt of funds from the time CTCL receives a signed grant agreement and other information to make the transfer varies on how you choose to receive the disbursement:
- Wire transfer: 3-4 business days
- ACH: 5-9 business days
- Check: 6-10 business days
All grantees are required to submit a grant report. The deadline to submit a grant report is January 31, 2025.
All grantees must submit a grant report by January 31, 2025.
Grants are from the Center for Tech and Civic Life, which is a publicly supported 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. By law, CTCL’s financial information on its annual IRS 990s are available for public review. CTCL also publishes a list of its major contributors online.
A nonpartisan nonprofit organization that connects Americans with the information they need to become and remain civically engaged, and ensure that our elections are more professional, inclusive, and secure.
This year, CTCL’s nonpartisan grant program is open to every eligible rural and nonmetro election department that is permitted by law to accept such private donations. The 2020 grant program was open to every eligible election department regardless of size. In addition, since 2020, 28 states have passed legislation that prohibits or limits the acceptance of private funding for election administration. This means fewer election offices will be able to apply for and receive a philanthropic grant in 2024 than in 2020. Unlike 2020, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is not funding 2024 grants to local election offices.
What won’t change is that the grants will continue to be nonpartisan, voluntary, and compliant with federal, state, and local laws.