NEW YORK (AP) — Top election officials from two swing states with rotating presidential candidates asked Wednesday for more federal funding for election infrastructure while expressing confidence in preparations for the November election.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, both Democrats, said during a hearing before the House Administration Committee that they still need funding to improve election security, replace old-fashioned machines, hire staff and modernize voter registration systems.
But she and the four other state election officials said at the hearing that they would apply their resources to do everything possible to allow eligible voters to participate this fall and exclude ineligible voters from the process.
The appeal for more federal funding comes just before the start of this year’s presidential election and as the first mail-in ballots are being mailed to voters. The electoral process is under intense scrutiny across the country, compounded by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, his unproven warnings that noncitizens will vote illegally this year, and his ominous promise to prosecute anyone involved in what he called “rampant voter fraud” in this year’s election.
The disinformation led to threats that forced the election authorities to strengthen their security measures. There were also attacks on election workers, which sometimes required police intervention.
Fontes told the committee that oversees federal elections that Arizona has taken a number of steps this year to boost voter confidence and augment election security, from conducting simulation games to implementing a statewide ballot-tracking system and deploying technicians to ensure county election offices are equipped with key security safeguards.
But “none of this is free,” he said, and there is still “no sustainable and reliable government funding for this critical infrastructure.”
“Do the same thing with highways, dams and railroads and see what happens,” Fontes said. “We’re begging you, please consider funding this cause if it’s so important and if it’s so important that we continue to have free, fair and secure elections.”
The Republican committee chairman, Rep. Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, responded to the funding demands by promoting the SAVE Act, a Republican-driven voter citizenship verification mandate that previously passed the Republican-controlled House. Republicans are trying to pass the bill as part of broader legislation aimed at avoiding a partial government shutdown in the fall.
Steil told Benson that the legislation would give election officials free access to a federal database to facilitate them verify whether out-of-state voters are registered on the voter rolls. Benson said Michigan already thoroughly checks voters’ citizenship.
When registering to vote, voters must certify under oath that they are U.S. citizens. Voting by noncitizens is prohibited in federal elections and not allowed in state elections, although some localities allow it under certain circumstances. Although illegal voting by noncitizens is extremely sporadic, the possibility that it could occur on a larger scale due to the influx of migrants at the southern border has become a theme of Republican campaign messaging this year.
“American elections have been proven time and time again to be secure because of the policies we already use to verify electoral votes,” said Trevor Potter, president of the Campaign Legal Center, in response to Republicans who promoted the SAVE Act during Wednesday’s hearing. “Our system of checks and balances leaves no doubt that the official vote count is accurate.”
The committee also heard from the Democratic Secretary of State of New Mexico, who spoke about her state’s zero-tolerance policy on voter fraud and a voter education campaign, as well as the Republican Secretaries of State of Florida, Ohio and West Virginia.
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