Linn County Auditor & Commissioner of Elections Joel Miller recently met with Iowa Congressional staff to brief them on the need for local election offices to be fully funded.
“On January 10, 2024, I met with the legislative liaisons for Senators Grassley and Ernst, and Representatives Hinson and Feenstra, to recommend they vote in favor of continued funding for elections; specifically, cybersecurity protection,” said Linn County Auditor Joel Miller. “I think it’s only fair that since Federal office holders hold the prime real estate at the top of every ballot across the nation in our general elections that the Federal government funds a portion of the costs for local election jurisdictions to run our elections, like city and schools do when their office holders are on the ballot. At present, Federal funding for elections is inconsistent and unpredictable. Providing a consistent year-over-year funding stream that reaches local election offices in amounts that allow us to run our elections will continue to increase our readiness and security.”
Miller continued, “Since the 2020 election, only $72,200 has trickled down to Linn County via a Federal block grant, while Linn County taxpayers have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on security systems like an Albert Sensor, MDBR software, and CrowdStrike. Linn County is the leader in providing cybersecurity protection for elections, but a weak link in any of Iowa’s 99 counties puts all counties at risk when facing nation-state threats from Iran, North Korea, Russia, and China.”
In past years, Congress has provided $75 million in funding to the states for elections. Miller advocated for Congress to continue that level of funding this year and consider increasing the amount in future years. Miller stated, “The majority of the funds provided by Congress to Iowa never reach Iowa’s county auditor offices and when the funds are distributed by the Secretary of State, it’s on a one-size-fits-all counties basis and not on a per capita basis by voter. It’s unfair and non-sensical”.
The cost of administering elections—from printing ballots to hiring staff and securing voting facilities to securing technology and cybersecurity needs—is significant. The Elections Infrastructure Initiative has estimated the full cost of safe, secure, and inclusive elections at more than $50 billion over 10 years. And despite the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officially designating election infrastructure as “part of the existing Government Facilities critical infrastructure sector” in 2017, Congress has only appropriated $75 million in Help America Vote Act grants. By comparison, it cost the city of Los Angeles alone more than $50 million to administer the 2021 California recall election.
The meetings took place during the Election Center’s Joint Election Officials Liaison Conference and were supported by the Center for Tech and Civic Life and Issue One. More than 70 election officials met with Congressional staff during the event.
Linn County election administrators press for increased election infrastructure funding
January 25, 2024