After the chaos of 2020, states are preparing for election challenges — and threats

If 2020 was any indication, real and perceived threats to this year’s election will likely result in legal challenges. Potentially, those threats could create risks to the physical safety of election officials and poll workers.

Already, election officials across the country have been laying the groundwork to boost confidence in the results come November.

Two federal agencies primarily work on elections: the Federal Election Commission, which deals with campaign finance, and the Election Assistance Commission, which handles administration. A big part of the EAC’s work is identifying best practices in running elections.

Some of those practices were shared at the 2024 Elections Summit at the University of Maryland, where dozens of state and local election officials joined with federal officials and academics to discuss how to protect the upcoming vote.

In addition to providing training and resources, the agency serves as the conduit for federal funds that support state election offices. The EAC has funneled close to $1 billion to the states since 2018, according to Chair Christy McCormick. Money filters down to local election authorities, she said, which spent it on “hardening offices and putting cameras on the machines. We’re talking about security for the poll workers, we’re talking about cybersecurity, getting the right kinds of software and tracking devices.”

But many local officials who attended the event see that kind of influx of federal cash as a thing of the past.

“The majority of the funding that came through 2020 was COVID money. It was to offset having to increase costs for [personal protective equipment] and social distancing,” said Brianna Lennon, county clerk in Boone County, Missouri. “And that money is not coming back.”

The EAC can’t send money to the states without a formal appropriation from Congress, and since the federal government has been operating without a formal spending package for months now, Lennon and others expect not much else will come down the pipeline in time for the November election.

“I don’t have any confidence that we’re going to get an increase of anything,” she said. “So whatever we have from our local budgets, which is what funds 90% of our elections, is what we’re working with.”

Security is a big focus of the available funds, said Christina Worrell Adkins, director of elections for the state of Texas.

“The threats that we’re becoming more aware of and that we need to prepare for have evolved from those of the cybersecurity nature to something that’s more surrounding our physical security,” she said. “I think that’s just because we’ve seen the temperature rise across the country.”

Adkins said election officials are training poll workers in customer service and de-escalation techniques to hopefully stop any threats of violence. 

Nevada recently invested $30 million in upgrades of its election system, and although Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar called that an unprecedented amount, additional legal protections are also important, he said.

“We made it a felony to harass or intimidate election workers and poll workers,” he said. “Anti-doxxing legislation was important. And so we’re making election workers feel safe in the environment in which they’re working.”

In addition to security, election officials at the summit said they’re focusing the bulk of their preparation on what they see as the best strategy to avoid problems on Election Day: voter education.

Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs is asking his legislature for $1.2 million for “digital ads, radio ads, TV ads to remind people not just to vote, but what the voting process is. So for example, ‘Don’t forget to vote, [and] oh, by the way, the tabulation machines are not connected to the internet.’”

Hobbs and others said those kinds of messages can help prevent misinformation from taking hold by encouraging voters to turn to the folks who actually run elections as trusted sources of accurate information.

“The best way to combat misinformation is the truth,” Hobbs said.