HARRISBURG — The Department of Community and Economic Development has announced funding awards to Pennsylvania counties through the Election Integrity Grant Program (EIGP).
There were many counties that applied for and received EIGP grant awards. Under Act 88 of 2022, DCED established the program to provide grants to counties for the administration of elections.
The funding amounts were based on the number of registered voters within the county in the previous primary election. There are stipulations in the grants, including restrictions from taking money from third parties, committing to canvassing of mail-in ballots by 7 a.m. and to starting canvassing uninterrupted until completion.
To ensure counties have the resources they need to run our elections, Act 88 created the EIGP to provide every county with the opportunity to apply for a combined $45 million during the next two upcoming elections.
State Sen. Cris Dush, R-Brookville, said counties may use the funding to help count election ballots, print ballots and pay for other election-related costs. In return, the counties must clean up their voter rolls, report the total number of voters registered prior to an election, disclose the number of mail-in votes received within 4 hours of polls closing, ensure safekeeping of all ballots and count ballots on Election Day without interruption.
Dush said Act 88 in Pennsylvania resulted from the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), which received a $350 million donation from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, granting an estimated $23 million to just one-third of counties in the state to assist in election administration amid the pandemic in 2020.
“With that funding I wanted to ensure we had clawback provisions for those who took the money but did not comply with the measures necessary to ensure secure elections,” the senator said. “This legislation is meant to ensure both. It may be that we will need to increase that funding, but it should be done with public dollars, not money from outside interests in a ‘get out the vote’ effort aimed at benefitting one party.”
For Dush’s 25th Senatorial District — both counties in the prior district and the counties in the new district following the latest statewide redistricting — the awards are as follow:
