Lansing, MI - The Michigan Bureau of Elections has notified county and local election officials that it is making available $8 million in grant funding for jurisdictions to implement additional election security measures for the 2022 election.
“These grants from our office will assist local election officials to protect the integrity and security of our elections as they face unprecedented threats and challenges to their work,” said Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. “But investing in secure elections is meant to be a team effort, so we need legislative leaders to join us and commit to providing consistent and sufficient funding to ensure our election officials have the tools they need to protect democracy.”
The Bureau’s grants answer the call issued last month by the associations of municipal and county clerks seeking financial support from legislative leaders. The grant program will reimburse specified expenses to improve physical security of election locations, purchase and upgrade technology and networks used to support election administration and procure services and personnel to help secure elections.
The funds were appropriated to the states by Congress under the Help America Vote Act, and the Bureau of Elections developed the grant program based on the recommendations of the Election Security Advisory Commission and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), as well as meetings and security exercises conducted with local election officials.