Cost of Elections

As legislatures enact reforms to improve election administration, it is essential that funding for local election officials is increased to meet the increased burden placed on jurisdictions. This report details why.

With reduction in federal funding for elections, it falls to states to properly fund elections. However, this white paper finds the states continue to fail to provide increased ongoing funding to support local election administration.

For decades, there have been resounding issues with funding elections across the country. Outside of lack of federal funding for elections, one of the main reasons for this is that the systems for financing the administration of elections are as decentralized and varied as the systems for conducting elections. This paper reviews experiences and elections budgets from 12 states to better educate those in the electoral space about the dire need for more funding.

Much of the discussion of elections and election laws centers on access to voting and election security, and the ostensible tradeoff between the two. This paper presents an alternative perspective for evaluating election administration policies, drawing from the administrative burdens framework.