U.S. Election Assistance Commission

Fiscal Year 2024 

Congressional Budget Justification
2 U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION

Table of Contents

Mission and Vision 3

FY 2024 Priorities 4

Appropriations Language 5

Administrative Provision 5

Agency Background and Structure 6

Goals and Structure of Budget Justification 7

U.S. Election Assistance Commission Organization Chart 8

Fiscal Year 2022 Accomplishment Highlights 9

Operating Plan Summary 17

FY 2024 Budget Request Highlights 18

Budgetary Changes Relative to FY 2023 President’s Budget Request 23

Budget Requests and Performance Measures by Strategic Goal 24

Office of Inspector General 35
FISCAL YEAR 2024 CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET JUSTIFICATION 3

Mission

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission helps election officials improve the administration of 

elections and helps Americans participate in the voting process.

Vision

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission is a trusted, proactive, and responsive federal agency that 

helps election officials administer and voters participate in elections.

Salaries and Expenses

Election Security Grants

Mission and Vision

FY 2022

Enacted

FY 2023

President’s Budget

FY 2023

Enacted

FY2024

Requested

FTE* Dollars FTE Dollars FTE Dollars FTE Dollars

49 20,000,000 78 30,087,000 65 28,000,000 87 33,807,472

*$1 million No-Year College Poll Workers Grants included

FY 2022

Enacted

FY 2023

President’s Budget

FY 2023

Enacted

FY2024

Requested

FTE* Dollars FTE Dollars FTE Dollars FTE Dollars

– 75,000,000 5 *250,000,000 – 75,000,000 – 300,000,000

*Election Innovation Grant Request
4 U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION

FY 2024 Priorities

Continue to serve as a clearinghouse of voting information by providing election officials and 

voters with necessary and timely information and materials as they prepare to administer and 

participate in the 2024 presidential election, as well as future elections.

Help the nation administer elections with secure and accessible voting systems through 

utilization of the newly implemented Voluntary Voting System Guidelines 2.0, expanding 

quality monitoring efforts for certified voting systems in the field, as well as continue a pilot 

program dedicated to evaluation of election supporting technology. 

Prepare to administer the 2024 Election Administration and Voting Survey (EAVS), the 

agency’s instrument used to collect state-by-state data on the administration of federal 

elections. Additionally, utilize increased funding to execute studies statutorily mandated by 

the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA).

Develop a Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure (CVD) policy for voting systems and conduct 

testing campaigns of submitted VVSG 2.0 voting systems.

Administer a new round of $300,000,000 in Election Security Grants for FY 2024. 

The EAC also requests a reprogramming of old HAVA 101 funds, 251 funds, and Data 

Collection Grants to be used toward expanding the FY 2023 competitive Help America Vote 

College Program.
FISCAL YEAR 2024 CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET JUSTIFICATION 5

Appropriations Language

Administrative Provision 

U.S. Election Assistance Commission

SALARIES AND EXPENSES (INCLUDING TRANSFER OF FUNDS)

For necessary expenses to carry out the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (Public Law 107-252), 

$33,807,472, of which $2,500,000 shall be made available to the National Institute of Standards 

and Technology for election reform activities authorized under the Help America Vote Act of 2002.

ELECTION SECURITY GRANTS (APPROPRIATION LANGUAGE)

Notwithstanding section 104(c)(2)(B) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 

20904(c)(2)(B)), $300,000,000 is provided to the Election Assistance Commission for necessary 

expenses to make payments to States for activities to improve the administration of elections for 

Federal office, including to enhance election technology, make election security improvements, and 

improve access to voting, as authorized by sections 101, 103, and 104 of such Act: Provided, That 

for purposes of applying such sections, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands shall 

be deemed to be a State and, for purposes of sections 101(d)(2) and 103(a) shall be treated in the 

same manner as the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and the United States 

Virgin Islands: Provided further, That each reference to the ``Administrator of General Services’’ or 

the ``Administrator’’ in sections 101 and 103 shall be deemed to refer to the ``Election Assistance 

Commission’’: Provided further, That each reference to ``$5,000,000’’ in section 103 shall be 

deemed to refer to ``$3,000,000’’ and each reference to ``$1,000,000’’ in section 103 shall be 

deemed to refer to ``$600,000’’: Provided further, That not later than two years after receiving a 

payment under this heading, a State shall make available funds for such activities in an amount equal 

to 20 percent of the total amount of the payment made to the State under this heading: Provided 

further, That not later than 45 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Election Assistance 

Commission shall make the payments to States under this heading: Provided further, That States 

shall submit quarterly financial reports and annual progress reports.

Of the unobligated balances from prior year appropriations made available to the Election Assistance 

Commission under the headings “Election Security Grants” and “Election Data Collection Grants”, 

up to $3,700,000 may be used by the Commission for the Help America Vote College Program as 

authorized by title V of the Help America Vote Act of 2002.
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Agency Background and Structure

Congress established the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to help election officials 

improve the administration of elections and help Americans participate in the voting process. 

Congress charged the EAC with fulfilling its mission by administering a national election 

administration clearinghouse that studies election administration practices, provides best 

practices to the nation, helps voters register to vote and participate in federal elections, manages 

federal standards for voting systems, tests and certifies voting systems to the national standard, 

and distributes congressionally appropriated funds to states for the improvement of election 

administration and other purposes pursuant to the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).

The EAC consists of four presidentially appointed Commissioners, professional staff, and four 

Federal Advisory Committee Act committees. The majority and minority party each have the 

authority to recommend two of the four Commissioners who lead the agency, making the EAC a 

bipartisan commission by statutory mandate. 

The EAC’s three statutorily mandated FACA committees are the Board of Advisors, the Standards 

Board, and the Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC). The three groups advise the 

agency and help develop the EAC’s national voting system testing and certification standard, the 

Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG). 

HAVA dictates the membership of the three committees. The Standards Board is a 110-member 

board consisting of 55 state election officials (the 50 states, the District of Columbia, American 

Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands) selected by their respective chief state election 

official, and 55 local election officials selected through a process supervised by the chief state 

election officials. The Board of Advisors consists of groups representing governors; mayors; 

state legislatures; secretaries of state; state election directors; county recorders, election officials 

and clerks; voter advocacy groups; federal agencies; and professionals in the fields of science 

and technology. 

The TGDC helps the EAC develop its Voluntary Voting System Guidelines. It is composed of 14 

members appointed jointly by EAC and the Director of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s 

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), who is the chairperson of TGDC. 

In 2021, the EAC established a fourth FACA Committee, the Local Leadership Council (LLC), to 

provide recommendations and direct feedback to the EAC on a range of election administration 

topics. Membership in the LLC consists of 100 members with two members from each state who 

are currently serving or recently served as officers of each state’s local election official association. 

The first meeting of the LLC took place on December 10, 2021. In 2022, the LLC held its Annual 

Meeting as well as several subcommittee meetings to draft the Council’s inaugural Bylaws. The LLC 

voted and adopted those bylaws on February 21, 2023.
FISCAL YEAR 2024 CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET JUSTIFICATION 7

Goals and Structure 

of Budget Justification

As established and detailed in the EAC’s strategic plan, the EAC’s operations and offices are 

aligned to address the Commission’s congressional mandates to serve as a clearinghouse of 

information on voting; test and certify voting systems; administer and maintain the National Voter 

Registration Act (NVRA) voter registration form; assist states with administration of HAVA funds; 

and report to Congress on NVRA and Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act 

(UOCAVA) voting activity. 

The EAC’s current strategic plan sets forth three strategic goals and 10 strategic objectives. The 

three strategic goals are as follows:

1. Strengthen and protect American elections through the development and implementation of 

responsive and dynamic voting system guidelines and cyber resources for election officials; 

2. Encourage improvements to election administration through the development and distribution 

of resources that assist election officials in modernizing American elections; and

3. Create operational excellence throughout agency management and programming.
8 U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION

U.S. Election Assistance Commission 

Organization Chart
FISCAL YEAR 2024 CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET JUSTIFICATION 9

Fiscal Year 2022 

Accomplishment Highlights

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) is a trusted, proactive, and responsive bipartisan 

federal commission that tests the security of the nation’s voting system and helps election 

officials administer and voters participate in elections. Established by the Help America Vote Act 

of 2002 (HAVA), the EAC provides funds to state election offices to improve and strengthen 

security around federal elections, serves as the nation’s clearinghouse for information on election 

administration, conducts the Election Administration and Voting Survey (EAVS) and other studies, 

develops the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG), accredits testing laboratories and 

certifies voting systems, and administers the National Mail Voter Registration Form in accordance 

with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. From coast-to-coast, the EAC is providing 

services for state and local election officials and the voters they serve. Among the EAC’s most 

notable accomplishments during Fiscal Year 2022 are the following:

HAVA Grants

The EAC awarded $75 million in Election Security Grant funds in FY 2022. The new funding 

came with increased reporting requirements, which included grantee reporting of financial data 

on a quarterly basis. This added two more reports per fiscal year for each grantee receiving 

Election Security Grant funds. The EAC pursued Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) approval to 

ensure that the required reporting was standardized to reduce the reporting burden across grant 

recipients. Beginning in January 2023, the agency is implementing the new quarterly financial 

reporting requirement.

Multiple training events were held to support the Federal Financial and Progress reporting for all 

HAVA grants. The emphasis of training at critical compliance points led to improved and increased 

reporting compliance. Grants staff reviewed over 500 financial and progress reports in FY 2022. The 

Grants office responded to a high volume of inquiries regarding allowable, allocable, reasonable, and 

necessary expenditures and funding activities. 

CARES funding was available to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus pandemic for 

the 2020 federal election cycle. Per HAVA, states had until March 2022 to meet the matching 

requirements, at which point the CARES grants expired and automatically entered the closeout 

process. Training was provided to grantees on closing out grants and guidance was published on the 

EAC website. In FY 2022, the EAC continued the closeout process with individual grants for which 

activities had concluded and financials were reconciled, closing 19 CARES grants in FY 2022 for a 

total of 45 of 56 grants closed. The EAC expects to close the remaining 11 grants in FY 2023. Many 

states spent all their funding, while some states have returned federal funds including interest earned 

on those funds. The federal funds returned in FY 2022 totaled $20,555,358.

The Office of Grants Management reports directly to the Executive Director. Additional personnel 

changes included hiring a third full-time Grants Specialist to oversee and support the increased 

grants administration responsibilities for the agency and recruiting a fourth Grants Management 

Specialist with a start date anticipated in FY 2023.
10 U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION

The EAC selected HHS’ GrantSolutions grants administration software as a service to improve 

and automate its grants administration functions. This will allow for more time to be dedicated to 

conducting strategic activities and providing technical support to grantees. Utilization of a grant 

system is expected to reduce grantee time spent on administrative activities and free up staff time 

to execute and oversee grant activities. Until the selection and implementation of GrantSolutions, 

the Grants staff has been manually administrating and responding to inquiries regarding HAVA 

funding. All processing of applications, issuance of awards, review of reports and extraction and 

data-mining of emails and PDF documents was handled by staff without a centralized grants 

system like GrantSolutions to house and automate these functions. The GrantSolutions award 

management system allows the EAC to standardize financial assistance management procedures 

and increased transparency, accountability, and oversight for financial assistance funding. With this 

grant system, staff can develop better technical assistance training for award management, best 

practices, audit readiness, and education on federal assistance grants administration. The EAC fully 

deployed the system on November 1st, 2022 (FY 2023) ahead of the annual report deadline of 

December 29, 2022.

Strengthening Election Security and Voter Confidence

The testing of the security and accuracy of voting machines is a national security imperative. 

The EAC understands that voter confidence can be enhanced when election officials and 

their federal partners adequately prepare for and respond to election security challenges. As 

demonstrated in recent elections, such challenges include election disinformation campaigns, threats 

to the physical safety of election officials, malicious attempts to breach voter registration databases 

and other election systems, the use of ransomware, and other emerging and evolving threats to 

election infrastructure. 

The Cyber Access and Security Program (CAS) is an integral part of the EAC’s mission. CAS 

maintains an Election Security Preparedness page on the EAC website with cybersecurity, risk 

management, training, best practices, and other resources to support this key mission. CAS 

coordinates closely with other agencies such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology 

(NIST), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Federal Bureau 

of Investigation (FBI) to produce relevant and timely products that complement other agency 

offerings. Examples of this include the publishing of guidance on hash validation, contributions to the 

EAC’s chain of custody best practices guidance, and the continued hosting of CISA’s Election Risk 

Management online tool. The EAC’s CAS program will continue to seek new and innovative ways 

to deliver high-quality information and training to election officials. As the federal agency tasked 

with distributing election administration best practices, the EAC is well positioned to expand its 

leadership in this area in coordination with our partners and stakeholders.

In 2022, the EAC was invited to participate in the National Security Council Interagency Policy 

Group to advise the Administration regarding emerging threats to the nation’s election security 

infrastructure. This builds on well-established collaboration with other federal government entities 

that work on election security, including the development of the election security working group 

that eventually became the election infrastructure subsector’s Government Coordinating Council 

(GCC). Led by the EAC chair on the GCC executive committee, GCC members include the EAC 
FISCAL YEAR 2024 CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET JUSTIFICATION 11

Chairperson and Vice Chair, as well as three state election officials and three local election officials 

drawn from the EAC’s federal advisory committees. The EAC’s remaining two Commissioners 

serve on the GCC as ex officio members. In addition to the EAC’s work with the Department of 

Homeland Security (DHS) to establish the GCC, the Commission supported establishing the Sector 

Coordinating Council (SCC) comprised of private election equipment manufacturers and vendors.

The escalation of threats to election workers is of great concern to election officials and the EAC. 

In an effort to provide additional resources on this important issue, the EAC launched a dedicated 

webpage for security-related concerns. The webpage serves as a reference for election workers 

who may be facing personal threats or harassment in the workplace, and includes resources to 

identify, mitigate and respond to threats and guidance for removing personal identifiable information 

(PII) from internet searches. The EAC regularly updates this comprehensive resource to include 

information and best practices specific to the physical security of election and poll workers, 

information on submitting reports to law enforcement, helpful toolkits, and the most recent updates 

and resources from our federal partners. 

The EAC continues to take a multifaceted approach to helping state and local election officials 

strengthen election security. This work includes testing and federally certifying voting systems, 

producing security-focused resources, and disseminating security best practice information and 

checklists to state and local election officials.

Election Technology, Advancing VVSG 2.0

As states seek to invest in the purchase of new voting equipment, election leaders are continuing to 

turn to the EAC’s Testing and Certification Program as a key resource in ensuring the nation’s voting 

systems are tested to confirm the secure and accurate tabulation of ballots. This includes seeking 

information on the systems currently certified, Engineering Change Orders (ECOs) to certified 

system configurations, and implementation of the current iteration of the Voluntary Voting System 

Guidelines, which is known as VVSG 2.0.

In FY 2022, the EAC finalized implementation of VVSG 2.0. The first step was a unanimous vote 

of the Commissioners to adopt a VVSG Lifecycle Policy. This new policy facilitates migration to new 

standards by defining the types of VVSG version changes, both major and minor; the provision of 

guidance on Voting System Test Lab (VSTL) accreditation; deprecation of obsolete major standards; 

and definitions of limited maintenance modifications that may be made to systems certified to 

deprecated standards which allows jurisdictions to fully realize the expected lifespan of their voting 

systems. The policy also established an annual review cadence of the VVSG for potential changes to 

be included in future iterations of the standard.

The second and final step to implementing VVSG 2.0 was accreditation of both VSTLs to test 

systems to the new standard. Accreditation of the labs involves assessments performed by both the 

NIST National Voluntary Lab Accreditation Program (NVLAP) as well as the EAC’s Testing and 

Certification Program staff. These assessments were successfully completed by the labs and the 

Commissioners voted to accredit the labs in November and December. With implementation of 

VVSG 2.0 complete, the new Testing and Certification Program Manuals version 3.0, which include 

requirements for penetration testing of all systems submitted to the program going forward, are 

effective. The EAC is now accepting applications to test voting systems to the new standard.
12 U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION

The EAC continued to work with NIST to develop an evaluation process for End-to-End Verifiable 

(E2E-V) protocols in voting systems, as required by VVSG 2.0. Both agencies collaborated on 

a two-day webinar held in October to gather feedback on a range of topics regarding E2E-V 

technology. The webinar included four panels with stakeholders on several topics: integrity and voter 

confidence, security, accessibility and human factors, and implementation and testing of E2E-V 

in voting systems. The EAC and NIST are currently considering next steps in the process based on 

feedback received during the webinar.

In addition to the launch of VVSG 2.0, the EAC hired the first Director of the Election Supporting 

Technology Evaluation Program (ESTEP) in FY 2022. ESTEP was created to evaluate the security 

and accessibility of election supporting technologies such as: electronic poll books, electronic ballot 

delivery systems, voter registration portals, and election night reporting databases. ESTEP will lead 

to the creation of draft standards that can be used by Voting System Test Laboratories (VSTLs), 

the creation of program manuals, administration of pilot programs, and reporting on the results of 

these pilot programs. The objective of the EAC is to establish standards for these critical election 

supporting technologies similar to VVSG, to enhance the security and accessibility of these systems 

for all users.

In Q4 of 2022, the EAC moved forward with a voluntary Electronic Poll Book (EPB) pilot 

program. Nearly 2,000 jurisdictions in thirty-nine states utilize EPBs. The goal of this program is 

to help alleviate some of the burden currently shouldered by states in developing and maintaining 

EPB standards, as well as conducting testing of broadly applicable functionality, such as security, 

accessibility, and usability. A draft set of requirements has been developed by the EAC and NIST, 

and participants have been recruited for pilot testing. 

After the pilot, the EAC will evaluate whether to enter a more formal standards development 

process similar to how VVSG is vetted with public comment periods and a full review by all 

stakeholders. The EAC has also been in discussions with the Center for Internet Security (CIS) on 

how we may integrate their RABET-V security testing methodology into our pilot program. We 

are considering conducting more “traditional” system testing in parallel with CIS’s more specialized 

security testing to be able to compare both approaches and their appropriateness for future 

testing efforts.

Information Technology Improvements

Throughout 2022, the EAC continued to implement improvements to its information technology 

(IT) infrastructure. These include abilities to gain greater visibility into the health of all EAC 

endpoints, whether operating in a remote environment or utilizing our on-premises network. In May 

of 2021, President Biden signed Executive Order 14028 mandating all Federal Civilian Executive 

Branch agencies take measures to improve the cybersecurity posture of their organizations. One 

of the principal requirements of the Executive Order is to transition EAC’s infrastructure to a Zero 

Trust Architecture. The EAC has developed a plan to implement a Zero Trust Architecture and is 

assessing funding and staffing needs to fully realize the transition. Throughout 2022, the EAC made 

progress toward this goal by implementing full encryption for data at rest and in transit, developing a 

data classification schema, and improving endpoint device signaling and telemetry.
FISCAL YEAR 2024 CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET JUSTIFICATION 13

In addition to Executive Order 14028, a number of binding operational directives (BODs) and 

OMB memoranda have been issued related to improving cybersecurity. In particular, BOD 22-01 

requires the EAC to remediate vulnerabilities with known exploitations within 14 days of publishing 

on a CISA maintained list. This requirement has caused the EAC to accelerate existing plans for 

automated vulnerability detection and remediation and we are currently able to meet the timelines 

set out by CISA. Implementation of additional OMB guidance related to logging and multi-factor 

authentication was also ongoing throughout 2022. In FY 22, the EAC fully integrated with the 

CISA continuous diagnostics and mitigations (CDM) program. This capability allows fully automated 

reporting of EAC endpoint health to the CISA federal dashboard.

The EAC continues the decommissioning of legacy infrastructure including major efforts to migrate 

identity and access management to modern infrastructure. In FY 22, the EAC successfully migrated 

its data from remaining legacy systems to a cloud-based file storage system that allows more 

granular access management, versioning, and other functionality related to Zero Trust Architecture 

goals. Finally, the EAC coordinated with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) 

to create a formal Operational Security (OPSEC) program. This included the creation of training 

materials for all staff, integration of OPSEC principles into existing policies and procedures, and the 

formal designation of personnel with OPSEC responsibilities.

Conducting Essential Research on Election 

Administration and Infrastructure

The biennial Election Administration and Voting Survey (EAVS) is the agency’s flagship research 

initiative, collecting nationwide data on election administration from nearly 6,500 local election 

jurisdictions across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. The EAVS collects 

state-by-state, jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction data on a wide variety of election administration topics, 

including voter registration, military and overseas voting, domestic civilian by-mail voting, polling 

operations, provisional ballots, voter participation, and election technology. EAVS data is utilized 

by countless stakeholders in the election community, including members of Congress, legislative 

staff, federal officials, journalists, academics, advocates, and election officials themselves. In today’s 

environment of heightened concerns regarding cybersecurity in elections, EAVS data is increasingly 

being used by intelligence analysts, members of the national security community, and other 

stakeholders who are working to secure U.S. election infrastructure.

EAC initiatives to improve the EAVS have focused on three interrelated goals: to reduce response 

burden; to strengthen data quality and completeness; and to make the data more accessible and 

useful, particularly for election officials. Respondents to the 2022 EAVS continue to have the option 

of completing the EAVS online, along with the option of using the traditional EAVS data collection 

template. The EAC plans to transition to a fully online survey experience in the coming years.
14 U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION

In FY 2022 the EAC initiated a needs assessment review by interviewing 27 states about their 

experiences completing the 2020 EAVS and gathered input from participants for implementation 

in 2022. Usability testing of the survey instruments also continued in preparation for 2022. Through 

this user-centered testing, EAVS and Policy Survey navigation was evaluated by real users under the 

observation of a trained researcher to improve user experience. EAC continues to work to improve 

data quality of these survey instruments. In January 2022, the EAC published 56 state-by-state 

2020 EAVS data briefs and an online data interactive. The briefs are snapshots of key EAVS data 

points. Complementing these efforts, the EAC also released the 2020 EAVS Data Interactive. 

The EAVS Data Interactive is an online tool that allows visitors to explore, visualize, and compare 

election jurisdictions’ EAVS responses. Both products help make EAVS data accessible and useful to 

a wide audience and provide summaries of state- and jurisdiction-level data. 

The EAC accepted public comments for the 2022 EAVS in early 2022. OMB approved the 2022 

survey instruments on April 14. The EAC conducted usability testing of the 2022 Policy Survey 

data collection template with 7 states in July 2022 and testing of the 2022 EAVS data collection 

templates with 5 states in September 2022. In July-August 2022, the EAC conducted pre-survey 

outreach calls to new state Points of Contact (POCs) from 10 states for the 2022 EAVS. In July 

2022, the EAC updated A Guide to the Election Administration and Voting Survey for the 2022 

EAVS. The EAC deployed the 2022 Policy Survey at the end of FY 22. 

The EAC reconstituted the Section A Working Group in FY 2022. The working group consisted 

of six state election officials, two local election officials, and two other elections experts. The group 

discussed potential question changes to be made to Section A of the 2024 EAVS. A report of their 

recommendations was published in July 2022 titled Planned Changes to Section A of the 2024 

Election Administration and Voting Survey (EAVS).

The EAC is currently administering the 2022 EAVS by collecting and analyzing 2022 EAVS data. 

The final comprehensive report will be released in June 2023. 

Election Accessibility

The EAC has been dedicated to supporting language accessibility in elections since its establishment 

by the Help America Vote Act in 2002. This includes creating glossaries and phrase books of 

common election terminology, providing Help America Vote Act funds to states to improve language 

accessibility, and offering the National Mail Voter Registration Form in 21 languages. 

Under Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act, the U.S. Census Bureau determines which voting 

jurisdictions must provide language assistance for specific minority groups who are unable to speak or 

understand English well enough to participate in the voting process. The most recent determination 

was announced on December 8, 2021, adding new language requirements for 68 jurisdictions. To 

assist states and localities in implementation of language and service requirements, the EAC hosted a 

virtual Language Access Roundtable in February 2022. The event highlighted a range of issues state 

and local election officials should consider when adopting new language requirements. Along with 

state and other federal resources, the EAC developed several best practice resources following the 

announcement of covered jurisdictions. 
FISCAL YEAR 2024 CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET JUSTIFICATION 15

Election officials are responsible for ensuring accessibility in elections for voters with disabilities. To 

assist election officials in providing accessible options for voters with disabilities, the EAC released 

best practice checklists for voting in person and by mail. The EAC continues to actively engage 

voters with disabilities and advocacy groups focused on accessibility. This included distributing copies 

of the EAC’s disability voting rights pamphlet, which uses plain language to spell out federal voting 

rights for persons with disabilities in large print and Braille. EAC Commissioners and staff also 

participated at key stakeholder events focused on voting for persons with disabilities, including. the 

African American Conference on Disabilities, Disability Policy Seminar, Access the Vote Florida, 

and the Elections Accessibility Summit.

To gather key information on voter access ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, the EAC 

conducted a national survey in March and April of 2022 to identify both the advancements and 

gaps in accessibility for voters with disabilities. The agency commissioned the study alongside 

veteran researchers from Rutgers University. The full report, titled “Disability, the Voting Process, 

and the Digital Divide” was released on July 26, 2022. The study was conducted with a focus on 

computer and internet use, sources of information on the voting process used in 2020, accessibility 

of information sources, preferred ways of receiving information about the voting process, trust in 

information sources, expectations about voting and information sources in 2022, and knowledge 

of rights for accessible information. Access to this data is critical for election officials who are 

continuously working to communicate and meet the needs of their jurisdictions. Understanding 

how to better communicate with voters with disabilities – regardless of access to the internet – is a 

crucial step in making elections more accessible.

Clearinghouse

Established by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA), the EAC is charged with serving 

as a clearinghouse for election administration information. In FY 2022, the EAC expanded the 

Clearinghouse Division, made up of former election officials, experts in election administration, 

election law, and accessibility. The Clearinghouse team produced numerous resources to help 

election officials implement best practices on election official security, election night reporting, 

the canvass, accessibility practices to serve voters with disabilities and language minority voters, 

and numerous other subjects. The agency also utilized FY 2022 funding to expand into innovative 

research and training including a partnership with the University of Rhode Island to simulate 

thousands of polling place scenarios to identify best practices. The Clearinghouse Division also 

revised and published the Quick Start Guides series, which includes 26 guides that summarize and 

highlight election administration information in the United States.

In 2022, the EAC held the 6th annual Clearinghouse Awards, also known as the “Clearie” 

Awards, for best practices in election administration. The EAC launched the Clearies to further 

the clearinghouse mandate and to promote best practices in elections while celebrating the 

accomplishments of election officials.
16 U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION

The award categories include innovation in election administration; improving accessibility for 

voters with disabilities; best practices in recruiting, training, and retaining poll workers; creative 

and original “I Voted” sticker design; and innovation in election cybersecurity and technology. 

The EAC also announced two new categories for “Outstanding Use of HAVA Grants in Election 

Modernization” and “Outstanding Election Official Association Program.”. Winners were selected 

by two independent panels of election officials from the EAC’s advisory boards with the EAC 

Commissioners serving as judges for the sticker category.

In 2022, the EAC issued Clearies awards to 20 programs with honorees ranging from large states 

with more than 10 million voters to townships of less than 100,000 residents. To provide even more 

best practices to election administrators, the EAC also recognized 14 offices and their efforts for 

Clearie Honorable Mention awards.

The EAC continued to add more state-specific resources to its website, directing voters to 

trusted sources for voter registration, options to cast a ballot, and contact information for where 

they are registered.
FISCAL YEAR 2024 CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET JUSTIFICATION 17

Operating Plan Summary

Salaries and Expenses FY 2022 

Enacted Budget

FY 2023

President’s 

Budget

FY 2023

Enacted Budget

FY2024

Budget Request

Full-Time Equivalent 48 78 78 87

11 Payroll Personnel Compensation 5,711,216 8,451,563 9,453,592 9,254,066

Subtotal Personnel Compensation (PC) 5,711,216 8,451,563 9,453,592 9,254,066

12.1 Benefits 1,988,687 3,662,098 3,185,614 4,005,869

Subtotal PC&B 7,699,903 12,113,661 12,639,206 13,259,935

21 Travel 215,150 600,000 500,000 428,009

23 Rent, Communications, Utilities 731,476 682,309 982,779 796,716

24 Printing and Reproduction 15,048 25,000 56,525 20,423

25 Other Contractual Services 9,404,837 14,969,694 10,628,185 15,333,915

25.3 Funding Provided to NIST 1,500,000 1,500,000 1,500,000 2,500,000

26 Supplies and Subscriptions 89,230 90,000 351,969 174,083

31 Equipment 159,019 100,000 335,000 1,287,738

94 Financial Transfer 2,905 6,336 6,336 6,653

FY 2022 Year-End Unobligated (<1%) 182,432 – – –

Subtotal, Non-Personnel 12,117,665 17,973,339 14,360,794 20,547,537

Total 20,000,000 30,087,000 27,000,000 33,807,472

Election Security Grants FY 2022 

Enacted Budget

FY 2023

President’s 

Budget

(Election 

Innovation 

Grants)

FY 2023

Enacted Budget

FY2024

Budget Request

Full-Time Equivalent – 5 – –

11 Payroll Personnel Compensation – 532,350 – –

Subtotal Personnel Compensation (PC) 532,350

12.1 Benefits – 228,150 – –

Subtotal PC&B 760,500

21 Travel – 27,300 – –

25 Other Services – 815,000 – –

26 Supplies and Subscriptions – 4,000 – –

41.0 Grants 75,000,000 245,000,000 75,000,000 300,000,000

Subtotal, Non-Personnel – 245,846,300 – –

Total 75,000,000 246,606,800 75,000,000 300,000,000
18 U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION

FY 2024 Budget Request Highlights

In November 2024, the nation will administer and participate in the 2024 presidential election. 

The mission of the EAC is to protect the nation’s voting systems. The EAC’s FY 2024 budget 

justification highlights the agency’s plans to continue to help election officials efficiently and 

effectively administer secure and accessible elections by developing and sharing best practices, as 

well as research and report election administration data. The agency’s budget submission also looks 

to build on its recent growth and make continued key investments in areas of emerging importance 

including expanding a much-needed audit program for voting systems. Additionally, the EAC looks 

to strategically apply critical administrative funding internally to advance agency equity and diversity, 

enhance agency management and performance, and make substantial improvements in the areas of 

communications and web development. 

HAVA Grants 

Reprogramming Request for Help America Vote College Poll Worker Program

The EAC requests a reprogramming of up to $3.7 million in no-year funds carried forward from 

HAVA 101 funds, 251 funds, and Data Collection Grants to be used toward expanding the FY 

2023 competitive Help America Vote College Poll Worker Grant Program in 2024. The College 

Poll Worker Grant Program was reinvigorated in FY 2023 after more than a decade. The historic 

program was first established at the EAC in 2004. This program ran until 2011 with a total 

appropriation of $3.177 million. The EAC requests existing funding to be repurposed to fund this 

program to relieve poll worker shortages, serve an ongoing need to encourage student participation 

as poll workers or assistants, foster student interest in the elections process, and to encourage state 

and local governments to use students as poll workers. The program would 1) Encourage students 

enrolled at institutions of higher education (including community colleges) to assist State and local 

governments in the administration of elections by serving as poll workers or assistants; 2) Encourage 

college students to become cognizant of the elections process and civic education, and to assist 

in the smooth administration of elections in their community; and 3) Encourage State and local 

governments to use the services of the students participating in the program. These would be twoyear competitive grants with no match requirement.

Field Services Program / Election Technology Requirements / 

Vulnerability Disclosure

As a part of its FY 2024 budget request, the EAC requests funding for field inspections of 

certified voting systems and post-manufacturing audits of voting system equipment via a Field 

Services Program. This would be an expansion of the Regional Audit request for FY 2023 and 

would allow the EAC to ensure configurations of fielded EAC certified systems are consistent with 

their scope of certification, gather anomaly reports from election officials, provide election bestpractice trainings, and perform site reviews. These requests are in direct support of HAVA and the 

Administration’s cybersecurity priorities. It is critical that the EAC have adequate funding to ensure 

the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of certified voting systems that are in the field. The 

current EAC program does not have dedicated personnel to perform hash validation checks or 

anomaly investigations on behalf of election officials to ensure the integrity of the EAC Testing and 
FISCAL YEAR 2024 CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET JUSTIFICATION 19

Certification program. To perform the quality monitoring the EAC requires in its current program 

manual, adequate staff must be placed regionally to provide support to election offices throughout 

the nation. Regional staff would be managed through oversight from six full-time employees hired to 

support this effort.

Additionally, the EAC aims to establish specialty requirements and guidelines specific to technology 

used for election support that are not covered under VVSG, such as electronic poll books, voter 

registration databases, and ballot delivery systems. Each evaluation of election technology will be 

initially executed as a pilot program to assess adequacy of requirements and the parameters that 

would make the most effective and agile evaluation program. As part of this initiative, the EAC 

intends to hire election technology specialists dedicated to implementing and supporting these 

election support technology efforts. In addition, the EAC will fund expert contractors to assist with 

the development of these new programs. 

The EAC will utilize FY 2023 funds to finalize a pilot testing and certification program for electronic 

pollbooks that closely contours the existing voting system testing and certification program and 

requests FY 2024 funds to establish a permanent program. The agency’s pilot leverages wellunderstood processes and allows the utilization of existing testing and certification expertise in 

addition to the hiring of experts to determine the effectiveness of this type of program. The program 

will develop security and accessibility requirements for these critical pieces of election infrastructure 

that, due to their online nature, are inherently more vulnerable to exploitation than voting systems. 

The agency requests FY 2024 funds to take learnings from the electronic poll book program and 

expand testing to protect the nation’s other election supporting technologies, including accessible 

and secure ballot delivery for voters with disabilities and Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Voting 

Act (UOCAVA) voters. Strengthening the security of these systems is a national security imperative 

but must be undertaken with a strong focus on accessibility testing to ensure voters with disabilities 

have access to a private and independent vote. The EAC will utilize the experience of the agency’s 

voting system testing and certification program to strike this balance within the pilot program to 

ensure ballot delivery systems are both accessible and secure. 

Lastly, the EAC Testing and Certification program has an urgent need to support voting system 

vulnerability tracking, mitigation, and public disclosure. To execute this essential effort, the 

EAC seeks to hire two full-time vulnerability security specialists. These specialists will set up and 

streamline voting system vulnerability disclosure processes. In addition, they will work with trusted 

researchers and manufacturers to manage vulnerability findings and mitigations.

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Included in the FY 2024 EAC budget is an increase in the annual funding provided to the National 

Institute of Standards Technology (NIST) from $1.5 million to $2.5 million for its work in supporting 

the agency with its Testing and Certification and Clearinghouse research efforts. The funding 

provided to NIST has remained relatively unchanged over the last 10 years and this increase will help 

compensate for the impact of inflation over that period. This increase provides a great opportunity 

for the EAC and NIST to look to the future on important aspects of voting systems and election 

administration such as human factor considerations and “usable” security, which will essentially make 

security easier to navigate for election officials. The EAC will utilize an Interagency Agreement 

(IAA) to ensure these funds are used to further the testing and certification of critical election 

infrastructure to bolster the security of elections.
20 U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION

Expansion of Communications

As a part of its FY 2024 budget request, the EAC requests funding to continue the expansion of the 

Communications division’s capabilities. Communications continues to be a critical part of the agency 

as the EAC expands the resources and program provided to stakeholders. The Communications 

team’s ongoing growth will support other departments’ expansions and help raise awareness and 

expand capacity as a result. 

Advancing Agency Management and Performance

While the EAC’s mission remains unchanged, the current election environment is dynamic and the 

agency must maintain a workforce not only with the required technical and management skills for 

program and project delivery, but also one that is viable, committed, talented, and diverse. Plans 

are to increase the current agency workforce to 87 FTEs by FY 2024. This will require the Human 

Resources function to look beyond traditional administrative and compliance activities and be 

forward-thinking to provide guidance on strategic and operational human capital management issue. 

This type of strategic work will be an essential step in transforming EAC’s HR function.

Maintaining a quality management and performance curriculum continues to be critical for EAC. 

The newly revised performance management system, administered by NeoGov, was implemented 

in FY 2022 and continued evaluation of the program will be necessary to improve the process. 

Leadership training continues to be critical and the EAC has included in its FY 2024 budget request 

funding for continued supervisor training.

EAC Commissioners approved OPM studies to be performed on the agency’s structure and 

performance on a regular basis. Funding for such a study is requested to analyze and plan the number 

and skills of employees needed to achieve EAC’s mission. Workforce planning is a key HR function 

and must be addressed as staffing needs increase.

As EAC gradually brings more HR services in-house to increase the quality and effectiveness of 

human resource actions and activities related to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace, this 

will require more HR staff with a higher degree of specialization in order to be effective. Such role 

specificity will allow HR the flexibility to offset peak work demands in one HR area with staff from 

another and promotes greater efficiency in performance management, employee development, 

diversity initiatives, and other HR functions. 

Achieving the agency’s diversity and inclusion initiatives will require collaboration between the 

proposed Equity Office and the Office of Human Resources. Working together, the two offices will 

provide strategy to ensure that recruitment, hires, and promotions are conducted with EEO, equity 

and merit system principles in mind. They will also be held accountable for the practices designed to 

widen and diversify groups of qualified candidates considered for employment openings at all levels 

of EAC.
FISCAL YEAR 2024 CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET JUSTIFICATION 21

Advancing Equity

Unlike larger agencies, the EAC does not currently have an Office of Civil Rights (OCR) or an 

equivalent office focusing on equality, equity, and diversity. The agency aims to fill this void by hiring 

an Equity Advisor to advise, represent, and assist the EAC’s Executive Director, Human Resources, 

and the Office of General Counsel on civil rights and equal opportunity matters. These matters 

relate both internally to the EAC and externally to states and other stakeholders. For example, the 

team will ensure:

• The continued promotion of equal employment opportunities in the recruitment, hiring, 

development, and retention of a highly skilled, diverse, and effective workforce.

• Equal access and compliance with internal civil rights programs and services affecting EAC 

employees and applicants for employment.

• Equal access and compliance with external civil rights programs and services relating to the 

beneficiaries and potential beneficiaries of Help America Vote Act (HAVA) programs receiving 

federal financial assistance through EAC, including assisting states in complying with voting laws 

and civil rights voting laws.

It is important that the work of EAC’s newly established OCR is in alignment with the goals of EAC, 

which are as follows:

• Expand the nation’s comprehensive understanding of American election administration.

• Proactively and responsively create products that help election officials improve the 

administration of elections and help voters more easily participate in elections.

• Help election officials improve the administration of American elections through the distribution 

of EAC assistance and products.

• Reaffirm dedication to being good stewards of public funds, contributing positively to the federal 

government, and continuing to build and operate an agency that is diverse and impactful.

Cyber Access and Security Program

In FY 2024, the EAC will continue to build on its Cyber Access and Security Program, 

providing cybersecurity support both to internal EAC operations and external customers. Federal 

Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) documentation and compliance functions as 

well as technical cybersecurity expertise are provided by the program in support of the EAC’s 

IT operations. Externally, the program provides training, best practices, and other materials to 

assist election officials, voters, and others to improve the cybersecurity posture of their systems, 

practices, and procedures. The program works with other federal partners through the Government 

Coordinating Council to ensure its products are focused and relevant and do not duplicate the 

efforts of other agencies.
22 U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION

Election Official Training Program

Since 2020, election officials, interested stakeholders, and the public have engaged in a national 

conversation on how to restore trust in the elections process. While the public generally trusts their 

local elections office, this does not translate to trust in election officials in other localities or states. 

One way to address this problem is the creation of a national-level election official training program 

to increase the professionalization of election administration and to generate trust in election 

officials. Additionally, a training program can address concerns about increased turnover in elections 

offices. In recent surveys, a significant portion of election officials surveyed plan to leave the field 

before 2024 and recruiting and retaining staff remain a challenge. The EAC will utilize best practices 

developed and collected under the clearinghouse function to build and host a free training program 

for election officials nationwide. This program will allow officials from all jurisdictions to participate 

regardless of their local budget. It will facilitate the exchange of ideas and best practices that is core 

to the EAC’s mission.

Additionally, the EAC requests FY 2024 funds to establish a bi-annual training meeting for 

professional training of election officials. These trainings would allow election officials to gather 

in-person to learn from the EAC and each other, highlighting best practices and allowing for 

the development or furtherance of interpersonal relationships between the agency and its key 

stakeholders. Funds would be utilized to develop the training program and to provide for travel and 

hosting in-person training.

Mandatory Formula Grants

The Budget provides $5 billion to support critical state and local election infrastructure, through a 

significant and sustained federal investment to improve equitable access and ensure our elections are 

secure. These mandatory funds will be provided by formula over ten years to enable crucial electionrelated capital investments such as upgrades to registration databases, voting systems, and physical 

structures; support recruitment, training, and retention of election workers; improve physical and 

cyber security; and improve voters’ access to elections. 
FISCAL YEAR 2024 CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET JUSTIFICATION 23

Budgetary Changes Relative to 

FY 2023 President’s Budget Request 

(IN WHOLE DOLLARS)

PERSONNEL COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS: +$1,146,274

Assumes full annualized rate for existing personnel, those assumed under the FY 2023 

President’s Budget, and an FY 2024 increase of 9 FTE with associated cost of living adjustment.

TRAVEL: - $171,991

OTHER SERVICES: +$363,221

Includes contracts and other contractual services reflected in the FY 2024 budget request as 

compared to the FY 2023 President’s Budget Request.

M I S C E L L A N E O U S : 

Equipment: +$1,187,738

Supplies & Subscriptions: +$84,083

Printing & Reproduction: -$4,577 

Financial Transfers: +$317 

GRANTS: +50,000,000

Includes grants to States aimed at improving election administration, cybersecurity or other 

security safeguards, security of election officials, accessibility for voters with disabilities and 

other access needs, including vote-by-mail, voter education, language proficiency, usability, 

voter technology, or other programs to enhance processes and procedures in administering 

federal elections. This increase compares the Election Innovation competitive grants request 

in the FY 2023 President’s Budget of $250 million to the Election Security formula grants 

request of $300 million for FY 2024.
24 U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION

Budget Requests and Performance 

Measures by Strategic Goal

The EAC’s request is presented in terms of its three strategic goals. The full strategic plan can be 

found on the EAC’s website (https://www.eac.gov/about-eac/operations):

1. Strengthen American elections through the development and implementation of responsive and 

dynamic voting system guidelines and cyber resources for election officials; 

2. Encourage improvements to election administration through the development and distribution 

of resources that assist election officials in modernizing American elections; and

3. Create operational excellence throughout agency management and programming.

Strategic Goal 1

Strengthen American elections through the development and implementation of responsive and 

dynamic voting system guidelines and cyber resources for election officials.

Staff from the Clearinghouse, Communications, Office of the General Counsel, Office of the 

Chief Information Officer, Research, and Testing and Certification Divisions collaborate toward the 

success of Goal 1. Objectives and success indicators for the goal are as follows: 

OBJECTIVES

Objectives of the goal include continuing to evolve the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines 

and related policies, developing programs under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) to bolster 

security and accessibility standards of election technology, and leveraging and expanding the EAC’s 

existing technical expertise to provide timely resources to increase the security posture of critical 

infrastructure including voting systems, e-poll books, and other areas. 

SUCCESS INDICATORS

The anticipated success indicators of the goal are the yearly review of the Voluntary Voting System 

Guidelines (VVSG) for potential updates, the certification of a VVSG 2.0 compliant system, the 

successful piloting of a program for e-poll book testing and certification leading to the creation 

of a permanent program, conducting a pilot program for other election supporting technology, 

establishing a voting system vulnerability disclosure policy, the creation of an online training system 

with courses focused on election cybersecurity fundamentals, and the successful cybersecurity 

defense of 2022 midterm and 2024 presidential elections. 
FISCAL YEAR 2024 CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET JUSTIFICATION 25

1. Field Services Program, Evaluation of Election Supporting Technology, 

& Vulnerability Disclosure

Under HAVA, the EAC is responsible for assisting states with improvements of voting systems 

through the distribution of federal funds and by creating and administering a voluntary voting system 

testing and certification program. The testing and certification program creates and maintains 

standards against which voting systems can be tested, works with EAC-accredited voting system test 

labs to test voting systems against these standards, and certifies voting systems that successfully pass 

these tests. This standard is called the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG). States’ use of 

this standard and the EAC’s accompanying testing and certification program are voluntary, but most 

states choose to use the standard or its testing program in whole or in part. The VVSG helps states 

and localities, which are charged with selecting their own voting systems, select high-quality, secure, 

and accessible voting systems with confidence.

The EAC recognizes the national security need for robust voting system security testing in the 

Testing and Certification Program. To meet this goal, penetration testing is a requirement in the new 

program manuals for the VVSG. This testing is used to help assess the security posture of voting 

systems entering the EAC’s Testing and Certification Program. Penetration testing will also be used 

to confirm mitigations are in place for known vulnerabilities. These additional requirements will work 

in concert with the expansion of the Testing and Certification division to further strengthen the 

nation’s voting systems from domestic and foreign threats. 

In FY 2024, the EAC plans to significantly expand its Testing and Certification division through 

implementation of a Regional Field Services Program, including the hiring of regional voting system 

assessors that will require full-time staff to oversee and manage. 

Under the authority of HAVA, the EAC also plans to establish specialty requirements and guidelines 

specific to equipment used for election supporting technologies such as electronic pollbooks, 

voter registration databases, and ballot delivery systems. A pilot program will be initiated for each 

type of election technology with a permanent program following that will be informed by data and 

experience from the pilot. Ensuring the security of these systems is a major national security priority. 

The nature of these technologies and the lack of a coordinated testing program for them makes them 

inherently more vulnerable to intrusion or exploitation.

Finally, the EAC will work to establish a policy for voting system vulnerability management and 

public disclosure. Hiring election technology specialists with security expertise is required to support 

and execute these efforts. Additionally, infrastructure to host vulnerability testing, recruit security 

researchers, and offer bug bounties may be required as part of this effort.

In addition to voting system certification and laboratory accreditation, the EAC and its 110-member 

Standards Board, 37-member Board of Advisors, and 14-member Technical Guidelines Development 

Committee (TGDC) continue to work together to annually review potential changes to the 

Voluntary Voting System Guidelines and update the requirements when deemed necessary.
26 U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION

2. Cyber Access and Security Program

The EAC will continue to build on its Cyber Access and Security Program, providing cybersecurity 

support both to internal EAC operations and external customers. FISMA documentation and 

compliance functions as well as technical cybersecurity expertise are provided by the program in 

support of the EAC’s IT operations. Additionally, the EAC will continue to bolster its cyber defenses 

to achieve full zero-trust capability. Externally, the program provides training, best practices, and 

other materials to assist election officials, voters, and others improve the cybersecurity posture of 

their systems, practices, and procedures. The program works with other federal partners through 

the Government Coordinating Council to ensure its products are focused and relevant and do not 

duplicate the efforts of other agencies

THE FY 2024 REQUEST

For FY 2024, the EAC requests funds to meet its congressional mandates to create, manage, and 

administer voluntary voting system standards and accompanying testing and certification program 

as well as provide resources that help election officials administer elections and help Americans 

participate in the voting process. Specifically, the EAC will:

• Continue expanding a Field Services Program to assist election administrators with conducting 

fielded system configuration reviews.

• Implement a voting system vulnerability management and disclosure policy and program.

• Produce and publish best practice resources such as toolkits, videos, educational tools, blogs, and 

white papers on topics including securing complex election and voter databases, making voting 

accessible for all voters, training and managing poll workers, and cybersecurity.

• Continue expanding efforts to support additional testing of voting systems. This includes 

security penetration testing for every voting system submitted to the Testing and Certification 

Program, applying strengthened cybersecurity and accessibility requirements, new 

interoperability requirements, and annual review of VVSG requirements that keep pace with 

advancements in technology. 
FISCAL YEAR 2024 CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET JUSTIFICATION 27

Strategic Goal 2

Encourage improvements to election administration through the development and distribution of 

resources that assist election officials in modernizing American elections.

Staff from the Clearinghouse, Communications, Finance, Office of the General Counsel, Grants, 

Office of the Chief Information Officer, Research, and Testing and Certification Divisions 

collaborate toward the success of Goal 2. Objectives and success indicators for the goal are 

as follows: 

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the goal are to serve as a clearinghouse of election best practices by continually 

creating resources that help election officials improve the administration of elections and help voters 

participate in elections, increase confidence in America’s elections and transform the common 

understanding of election administration through commissioning innovative research, and effectively 

and efficiently distributing federal resources to EAC stakeholders. 

SUCCESS INDICATORS

Congress charged the EAC with acting as the nation’s clearinghouse of election administration 

information by a) crafting and managing a national voluntary standard and testing program for voting 

system testing and certification, b) collecting and publishing information and research on election 

administration information and data, and c) collecting and distributing election administration best 

practices. In Strategic Goal 2, the EAC fulfills these mandates by using its expertise to build and 

manage these clearinghouse and grants resources. 

In FY 2024, the EAC will continue to expand the nation’s comprehensive understanding of 

American election administration by managing and maintaining the nation’s clearinghouse of election 

administration information and practices, analyzing 2022 Election Administration and Voting Survey 

(EAVS) data, conducting research of best practices and emerging topics in election administration 

in areas such as cybersecurity, accessibility, language access, and technology, and effectively 

distributing federal resources to stakeholders. 

The success indicators for the clearinghouse of information on election administration are the use 

of EAC resources by election officials, the production and release of resources on top priorities 

as identified by EAC advisory boards, steady growth of engagement with the agency by election 

officials via newsletters and social media, and an increase in the use of the EAC website. 

Additionally, anticipated success indicators of this goal include an analysis of EAVS data that 

produces insights into U.S. election administration; successful creation of tools to make responding 

to EAVS and analyzing EAVS data easier; increases in the number of entities providing information, 

research, and data related to U.S. election administration; and the ability to better design EAC 

assistance products for the agency’s stakeholders.
28 U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION

Through its activities under this goal, the agency works to ensure the resources and expertise of the 

EAC and the broader federal government are distributed effectively, efficiently, and responsibly. 

In the last three years, Congress has appropriated $1.2 billion of federal funds for the improvement 

of election administration including a focus on election security. Congress designated the EAC to 

administer, monitor and audit these funds. In furtherance of this goal, the success indicators of the 

distribution of federal resources are the timely and accurate disbursement of funds, the resolution of 

audit findings, the timely closing of grants, and accurate and complete financial reporting. 

The election administration space continually moves at a fast pace as it is increasingly interconnected 

due to increased scrutiny from the media and national security efforts such as DHS’s Critical 

Infrastructure framework. For these reasons, the EAC plans to continue extensive work under 

Strategic Goal 2 into FY 2024 in order to best serve the nation.

Note: The EAC’s OIG activities impact the EAC’s work under strategic goal 2. The EAC’s OIG request is 

detailed starting on page 27.

1. Clearinghouse 

Congress charged the EAC with building and maintaining a national clearinghouse of election 

administration information and best practices. Maintaining this clearinghouse requires the EAC to 

regularly research current election administration practices as well as pressing election administration 

issues and needs; and to collect best practices from across the country. The clearinghouse function 

had become even more essential with the designation of voting systems as critical infrastructure 

in 2017, which requires additional staff, time, resources, and domain knowledge to protect the 

nations critical infrastructure against emerging cyber and physical threats. In addition, since the 

2020 election cycle, staff shortages and turn-over in elections offices have continued and led to 

an increased need for training and workforce development. To meet this need, the EAC produced 

nation-leading resources on audits, post-election procedures including results reporting, toolkits for 

communicating with voters and the public, poll worker recruitment and training, language access, 

accessibility for voters with disabilities, and general election security for states, localities, and voters. 

These resources have continued to expand and address the needs of election officials.

As the only federal agency that focuses on the whole of elections, the EAC’s clearinghouse work 

serves as a powerful central hub and single “go-to” location for election officials and voters as they 

work to improve the administration of and participate in their elections. EAC stakeholders regularly 

use these resources to improve the administration of their elections, educate voters, and generally 

increase voters’ confidence in the nation’s elections. State and local election officials, Congress, 

other federal agencies, and voters regularly leverage these EAC resources. 

In FY 2024, the EAC will continue to add best practices resources that focus on topics such as 

security, contingency planning, accessibility, voting system procurement, voter education and 

communication strategies, poll worker recruitment and management and other topics that emerged 

during recent election cycles. The EAC collects these best practices through hearings, in-person and 

virtual meetings, national election official and stakeholder conferences, leveraging its advisory boards’ 

extensive knowledge and experience, commissioner led hearings, and an innovative annual contest. 
FISCAL YEAR 2024 CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET JUSTIFICATION 29

Through each of these means, the EAC learns from the diversity of approaches taken by the nation’s 

thousands of election jurisdictions and helps the rest of the nation learn from their peers. These 

election administration best practice areas regularly include:

• Poll worker recruitment, management, and training;

• Voter registration list management;

• Polling place management;

• Procurement of voting and voter registration systems;

• Voter education and communication strategies;

• Security of voting systems; 

• Accessibility for voters with disabilities; and

• Access for voters with limited English proficiency.

Since the establishment of the Local Leadership Council (LLC) in 2021, the EAC has worked on 

recruitment and laying the structural framework for the Council so the agency can utilize this board 

to its full potential. As members work more with the EAC and understand their role and importance 

in providing analysis and recommendations to the EAC on local election administration topics, the 

EAC will continue to find ways to engage them and tap into this resource to better serve officials and 

voters. Membership in the LLC consists of 100 members with two members from each state who are 

currently or recently serving officers of each state’s local election official association.

The clearinghouse is hosted on the EAC’s website, https://www.eac.gov, and it contains best 

practices, research, instructional videos, and white papers on a wide variety of topics such as voter 

registration, voter registration list management, poll worker recruiting and management, staff 

training, voting system information, election system procurement help, audits, and security. These 

resources are essential to the nation as its election officials face the new and ever-evolving physical 

and cybersecurity threats. Election officials regularly look to the EAC as a starting place when 

understanding new issues and the EAC is dedicated to ensuring that when election officials look for 

help defending their election and voting systems they are provided with what they need.

The EAC’s website is a popular resource for voters and election officials as they seek help 

administering or improving elections in their jurisdictions. On the EAC’s website, the agency hosts 

downloadable copies of all current and legacy resources. The most popular set of resources on the 

EAC’s website is the agency’s resources for voters, particularly voter registration. Every day, voters 

and potential voters come to the EAC’s website to learn how to register to vote. Information 

like dates and deadlines, links and other updates requires regular monitoring to make sure the 

information provided is accurate. In 2022, the EAC continually added and updated information 

on registration and options to cast a ballot as well as information about becoming a poll worker. 

Though the redesign process for the site was in process in 2023, the work to make sure information 

is updated and the site is easily accessible is an ongoing effort. Enhancements to the usability and 

functionality of the website are an ongoing effort and continual work to make this resource the most 

effective it can be a priority for the agency.

In FY 2024, the EAC will continue to host election information and best practices on its public 

facing website, hold events and hearings, and it will continue to meet its congressional mandate by 

researching further election subjects.
30 U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION

2. Election Administration & Voting Survey and subsequent congressional report 

Congress mandates that the EAC study a number of election administration topics, and the EAC 

must study others to effectively carry its charge as the national clearinghouse. The additional topics 

that the EAC chooses to study are selected based on legislative mandates and the current and 

expected future needs of election officials and voters.

The EAC administers and oversees the biennial Election Administration and Voting Survey (EAVS), 

the only comprehensive collection and report of data on election administration and voting systems 

of its kind. In FY 2024, the EAC will process, analyze and release data from the 2024 Election 

Administration and Voting Survey (EAVS), the 11th iteration of the survey since the first one in 

2004. Through the EAVS, the EAC surveys the 50 States, the District of Columbia, American 

Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The survey, 

performed in conjunction with the Department of Defense’s Federal Voting Assistance Program 

(FVAP), collects data for more than 650 variables related to voter registration, military and overseas 

voting, absentee ballots, polling places, poll workers, and provisional ballots. The survey data is used 

by election officials, academics, and others to improve their methods, metrics, and tactics in serving 

voters and maintaining voter registration lists. EAVS falls under the President’s Management 

Agenda goal to leverage data as a strategic asset. The data collected in EAVS provides a unique 

perspective in election administration that can drive program decision making within the agency. 

The EAC looks forward to using data to enhance program areas that can produce more resources for 

election officials and voters. Currently, the EAC has limited resources to further synthesize the data 

and to provide more meaningful reports.

Much of the data collected through EAVS is congressionally mandated. The EAC uses the survey 

to help inform Congress on the impact of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) on the 

administration of elections for federal offices, and on the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens 

Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA). The EAC also uses the survey data to develop reference guidance 

for state election officials.

3. Monitoring and Providing Technical Assistance on Federal Grant Funds 

Under HAVA, the EAC is responsible for awarding, monitoring and providing technical assistance 

to states on the administration and use of grant funds. EAC staff members monitor the use of the 

funds by the states through progress and financial reports. The EAC has invested in a system of 

record, HHS’ GrantSolutions software as a system with functionality to improve end-to-end grant 

lifecycle processes, enhance efficiencies and provide for better performance measurement, data 

collection, and analysis to drive decisions and follow up actions for the current and any future federal 

grant funding. 

For 2024, the EAC’s work to monitor and provide technical assistance to these grantees will 

continue, including overseeing the expenditure of funds. The EAC’s Inspector General also audits the 

states’ use of the funds, and EAC staff members provide technical assistance to the states as they 

design and implement their plans to use the federal funds.
FISCAL YEAR 2024 CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET JUSTIFICATION 31

T H E F Y 2 0 2 4 R E Q U E S T 

For FY 2024, the EAC requests funds to continually meet its congressional mandate to serve as the 

national clearinghouse of election administration information by doing the following: 

• Analyze EAVS data and conduct additional research on cyber security programs and other areas 

of election administration that will assist with decision -making on the state and federal level. 

• Produce and publish best practice resources such as videos, educational tools, blogs, and white 

papers on topics including developing and maintaining complex online registration databases, 

set up and use of accessible voting equipment, registering to vote, training and managing poll 

workers, and cybersecurity.

• Provide regular staff-level contact with election officials to collect and share information.

• Conduct forums, town halls, webinars, and hearings to gather information about potential best 

practices and information pertinent to election administration by bringing together election 

officials, federal partners, and subject matter experts in the elections field.

• Explore and study how states are using congressionally appropriated HAVA funds.

• Continue statutorily mandated HAVA studies.

• Provide post-award administration and oversight for existing HAVA grants – 101, 251, Election 

Security, and FY 23 College Pollworker Grants. 
32 U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION

Strategic Goal 3

Create operational excellence throughout agency management and programming.

Staff from the Clearinghouse, Communications, Finance, Office of the General Counsel, Grants, 

Human Resources and Administration, Office of the Chief Information Officer, Research, and Testing 

and Certification Divisions collaborate toward the success of goal 3. Objectives and success indicators 

for the goal are as follows: 

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the goal are to increase customer service to key stakeholders and partners, update 

internal structures and policies to optimize performance, develop and continue to manage internal 

structures and tools that produce a culture of innovation and a driven workforce, and continue to build 

a skilled, diverse, and effective workforce. 

SUCCESS INDICATORS

The anticipated success indicators of the goal are the existence of interagency programs that provide 

unique value or generate efficiencies; continuing compliance with federal regulations and mandates; 

and internal strategic planning capacity development at the division and programmatic levels. 

The EAC is dedicated to functioning as a modern, strategic agency supported by qualified, innovative 

professionals who help the agency achieve its mission in an efficient and impactful manner. Through 

Strategic Goal 3, the agency reaffirms its dedication to being good stewards of public funds, 

contributing positively to the federal government, and continuing to build and operate an agency that 

is diverse and impactful. The agency has been historically underfunded. In recent years the agency has 

received incremental funding allowing for the improvement of its operational structure. The EAC aims 

to create operational excellence by increasing customer service to key stakeholders, updating internal 

structures and policies to optimize performance, maximizing minimal resources, and building a skilled, 

diverse, and effective workforce.

1. Advancing Agency Management and Performance

The EAC aims to do its part to further the Administration’s FY 2024 priority of Advancing 

Agency Management and Performance by procuring consulting services to assist with performance 

management and the potential development of measurable performance metrics. 

Performance management is measuring employee performance as well as managing performance. 

This is a complex task that focuses on three goals: (1) the efficiency of the manager-employee 

relationships; (2) if performance goals are being achieved, and (3) employee engagement and 

satisfaction. As the EAC continues to grow, maintaining a quality management and performance 

curriculum will be critical in the next few years for EAC leadership and staff. Therefore, it is 

important to dedicate the resources needed to advance management and performance by procuring 

consulting services. 
FISCAL YEAR 2024 CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET JUSTIFICATION 33

The measures of performance management effectiveness include addressing poor performance; 

utilizing HR metrics to evaluate the cost to hire for budgeting purposes and highlight issues with 

management; and acting on annual employee survey results to improve employee satisfaction. This 

will help EAC evaluate the current situation, identify the areas necessary to focus on to improve 

the agency’s performance, and develop an adequate strategy to reach those goals. Again, leadership 

training and performance management guidance to the agency remains critical in the short term and 

the EAC has included in its FY 2024 budget request funding for these investments.

2. Advancing Equity

The agency intends to hire dedicated staff tasked with advising, representing, and assisting the EAC’s 

Executive Director on civil rights and equal opportunity matters that ensure:

• The elimination of barriers that prevent individuals from realizing their full potential.

• The promotion of equal employment opportunities in the recruitment, hiring, development, and 

retention of a highly skilled, diverse, and effective workforce.

• Equal access and compliance with internal civil rights programs and services affecting EAC 

employees and applicants for employment.

• Equal access and compliance with external civil rights programs and services relating to the 

beneficiaries and potential beneficiaries of Help America Vote Act (HAVA) programs receiving 

federal financial assistance through EAC.

3. Cyber Access and Security Program

The EAC will continue to build on its Cyber Access and Security Program, providing cybersecurity 

support both to internal EAC operations and external customers. FISMA documentation and 

compliance functions as well as technical cybersecurity expertise are provided by the program in 

support of the EAC’s IT operations. Additionally, the EAC will continue to bolster its cyber defenses 

to achieve full zero-trust capability. Externally, the program provides training, best practices, and 

other materials to assist election officials, voters, and others improve the cybersecurity posture of 

their systems, practices, and procedures. The program works with other federal partners through 

the Government Coordinating Council to ensure its products are focused and relevant and do not 

duplicate the efforts of other agencies.
34 U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION

T H E F Y 2 0 2 4 R E Q U E S T 

For FY 2024, the EAC requests funds to create operational excellence throughout agency 

management and programming by doing the following: 

• Procuring services to implement performance management assistance including the 

development of performance metrics.

• Provide leadership training and performance management guidance to agency staff.

• Hire dedicated staff to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in EAC agency 

operations.

• Utilize dedicated staff to advise on compliance with external civil rights programs and services 

related to the agency mission.

• Expand the Cyber Access and Security Program to support internal operations including 

compliance and training, and to advance the EAC to full zero-trust capability.
ATTACHMENT A

Office of Inspector General
36 U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION

BACKGROUND

The EAC Office of Inspector General (OIG) was established by Section 812 of Help America Vote 

Act of 2002 (HAVA) and the Inspector General Act of 1978, as amended, to provide independent 

and objective reporting to EAC and Congress through its audit and investigative activities. 

Charged with the identification and prevention of waste, fraud, and abuse of federal resources, OIG 

strives to promote economy, efficiency and effectiveness in EAC programs and operations. OIG’s 

mission is to safeguard the federal investment in our electoral system by conducting objective and 

meaningful oversight.

THE BUDGET IN SUMMARY

OIG’s fiscal year (FY) 2024 request of $2,272,134 includes $6,653 as a transfer to the Council 

of Inspectors General for Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) in keeping with the provisions of the 

Inspector General Reform Act of 2008. The request also includes $31,875 for costs associated with 

training and professional development for OIG’s full-time employees.

OIG BUDGET REQUEST BY OBJECT CLASS

FY 2022 Enacted FY 2023 Enacted FY2024 Request

Salaries and Benefits 

11.1 Full-time permanent 540,545 563,724 721,695

11.9 Civilian personnel benefits 199,071 212,783 309,297

Total Compensation and Benefits 739,616 776,507 1,030,992

Contractual Services and Supplies

21 Travel, training and oversight 21,250 21,250 31,875

24 Printing and reproduction

25.2 Other services 639,285 1,055,925 1,134,889

25.3 Other purchases of goods and services 

from Government accounts

56,000 56,000 63,000

26 Supplies and materials 2,454 2,000 2,625

Acquisition of Assets

31 Equipment 2,000 2,000 2,100

94 Financial Transfers 4,395 6,336 6,653

Total Program $1,465,000 $1,920,018 $2,272,134
FISCAL YEAR 2024 CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET JUSTIFICATION 37

OIG STRUCTURE 

OIG is currently staffed by three full-time employees, the Inspector General, an Assistant Inspector 

General for Audit, and a senior auditor. OIG is also in the process of onboarding two program 

analysts and recruiting an attorney. 

With the addition of a General Counsel, OIG will no longer require an interagency agreement for 

legal services (approximately $10,000) and will establish elections subject matter expertise for 

legal advice related to our oversight work. This position will also be responsible for managing the 

investigations hotline, initiating investigative support when needed, and responding to Freedom of 

Information Act requests assigned to OIG. 

OIG will continue to rely on interagency agreements with other OIGs for investigative services. 

OIG’s FY 2022 request included $50,000 for investigative services, the cost of services in 

2007. The FY 2024 request for $200,000 reflects what it would currently cost to conduct 

investigations into wrongdoing when the need arises. OIG maintains $10,000 for editorial services 

through an interagency agreement as OIG is responsible for publishing results of our work and other 

mandated reports. 

OIG GOALS 

As established and detailed in OIG’s updated strategic plan, we strive to operate as a highperforming organization and help EAC be as efficient and effective as it can be. The plan sets forth 

three strategic goals: 

1. Assess and improve OIG processes.

2. Increase performance and value-add oversight. 

3. Foster stakeholder collaboration and encourage transparency. 

OIG ACTIVITIES

OIG primarily engages in three activities: 1) audits of EAC’s grant recipients, 2) audits of EAC’s 

programs and operations, and 3) investigations related to EAC’s staff, operations, or grant recipients.

Audits of EAC Grant Recipients (States and Territories)

Between 2018 and 2020, EAC has awarded more than $1 billion in federal funds to 50 states, the 

District of Columbia and 5 U.S. territories (American Samoa, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, 

Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands). This includes $400 

million under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. 

As described in the FY 2023 request, OIG will conduct more state audits through contracted audit 

services. In FY 2022, we commenced two internally conducted grant audits in response to reports 

of recipient noncompliance with federal reporting requirements. Doing these grant audits internally 

for high-risk recipients allows us to forgo the contracting process, complete the work faster, and 

find waste or questioned costs earlier. Waiting 8 or more years between each grant audit has made 

the audit reconciliation process more challenging. The additional staff will help support oversight of 

increased grant audits. 
38 U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION

Additionally, EAC notes some states have difficulty submitting accurate required reports and 

reconciling financials. This is exacerbated by overburdened state election offices that have difficulty 

hiring and retaining grant and financial staff. When HAVA audits first began, OIG worked with 

EAC to educate states on the requirements that are associated with audits of federal funding and 

assistance in meeting those requirements. With additional resources we can resume a more robust 

technical assistance education program. 

FY 2024 Priority: OIG will more frequently conduct grant audits, internally conduct audits of 

high-risk recipients, and complement audits with education and technical assistance to help states be 

more responsible recipients of federal election funds. 

Audits of EAC Programs and Operations

OIG is also responsible for conducting reviews and audits of EAC’s internal policies, procedures, and 

programs. OIG contracts with independent public accounting firms to perform statutorily mandated 

audits ensuring EAC’s compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) 

and the annual audit of the EAC’s financial statements. 

In FY 2022, EAC OIG began conducting audits of EAC programs with its own staff. OIG performed 

the mandatory review of EAC’s compliance with the Procurement Integrity and Information Act 

(PIIA) and commenced an audit of EAC’s Testing and Certification program. OIG’s FY 2023 audit 

plan includes proposals to conduct risk assessments and review other EAC operations. 

With the addition of a General Counsel, the Inspector General can focus on establishing procedures 

for Evaluations and Special projects to conduct more agile and timely work aligned with CIGIE’s 

Quality Standards for Inspections and Evaluations. These products can provide timely information 

for decision makers and stakeholders. 

FY 2024 Priority: OIG will meet statutorily mandated audit requirements, conduct audits internally 

on EAC programs, and build capacity to conduct evaluations and special projects.

Investigations

When allegations are made concerning waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement in EAC programs 

or involving a recipient of funds distributed by EAC, OIG is responsible for investigating those 

allegations. OIG receives complaints from a hotline voicemail, form submissions from our website, 

and direct email complaints. Complainants can also reach OIG via IGNET.gov, Oversight.gov, and 

other oversight entities. 
FISCAL YEAR 2024 CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET JUSTIFICATION 39

OIG has received over 600 complaints from October 2022 to February 2023.Complaints related 

to election crimes such as voter fraud are referred to the Department of Justice Public Integrity 

Section. OIG refers complainants to the appropriate state election officials when the issue relates 

to registering to vote or state election administration. OIG’s most recent semiannual report to 

Congress includes a breakdown of the disposition of complaints received. In FY 2022, OIG began 

configuration for an investigative software to further automize the complaint process and increase 

the ability to transparently report hotline complaint trends. 

When an allegation requires further investigation, OIG has an interagency agreement for 

investigative services. OIG also uses the agreement to consult with investigators on potential 

suspension and debarment, subpoenas, and other related actions. 

FY 2024 Priority: OIG will continue to use interagency agreements for investigative services and 

to bolster investigation hotline capacity for efficiency and transparency. The General Counsel will 

oversee these functions.