Additional Funding for Election Assistance in Response to COVID-19

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, our Voting Rights Task Force cochairs, and the over 150 undersigned organizations write to urge Congress to pass additional measures that would fully fund and direct states and counties to administer the 2020 elections in a safe, fair, and accessible manner, through the implementation of vote-by-mail and the expansion of early voting and in-person voting options. This is a massive undertaking that requires adequate funding that only the federal government can provide. Congress must provide states with at least $4 billion to prepare for the 2020 November and primary elections, and time is of the essence. In the last coronavirus response package, Congress provided only $400 million to states for election assistance. While a step in the right direction, that sum will defray only a fraction of the costs associated with implementing the necessary adjustments to safeguard the electoral process. In its next package, Congress must provide at least an additional $3.6 billion to help states prepare for 2020 elections amidst the COVID-19 crisis.