Columbia, South Carolina – Ahead of the 2024 presidential election, officials in some battleground states added staff, increased security and training within election offices facing heavier workloads and increased public scrutiny. proposed to increase funding for the expansion of

Potential additional funding comes as many election offices work wave of retirement and Flood of Public Records Requestspartly derived from Deep-rooted distrust of elections Seeded by former President Donald Trump in the 2020 loss.

In South Carolina, one of the earliest presidential primary venues, nearly half of county election commissions have resigned in the past two years, according to state election commission executive Howard Knapp. .

The unprecedented turnover has created a “huge knowledge and capability gap,” Knapp said, prompting a budget request for millions of dollars in additional budget to facilitate staffing and training. Without funding, inequality would widen and elections would be “severely affected,” he warned.

“I have no control over the resignation of the county mayor,” Knapp said. is not a problem, they have an established training program that they can take and pass on themselves.”

Election officials, governors, and legislators in states that hold early primaries or play key roles in presidential elections, such as Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. , has proposed an increase in funds. Legislators are still working on final budgets in many of these states.

Time is of the essence. Most of the state’s annual budget will take effect in his July, which will include the presidential primary election in the first half of 2024.

Georgia grand jury investigating Whether Trump and his allies illegally interfered in the 2020 election, lawmakers are among about 10 states that have already passed 2024 budgets. The Republican-led General Assembly added $427,010 to hire his two investigators, an administrative assistant and executive director for the state election commission.

One state that still focuses on campaign budgets is Arizona, which was the focal point of the election. Election challenges and conspiracies After Trump narrowly lost a state in 2020.

Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, a Democrat and former Secretary of State, proposed an $11 million increase to the new election task force. The commission will hold its first meeting earlier this month and by November will release recommendations on how to standardize election practices, update election equipment and security guidelines, and provide training to local workers. is.

Arizona Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes is demanding an additional $3.1 million in election-related spending. Part of that is adding six of her employees to help train and certify election officials, and a new Chief Information Security Officer to address cyber vulnerabilities in the election system.

there is There is no evidence that fraud is prevalent Or operating voting equipment in the 2020 elections. Yet among Republicans, distrust of the US elections is deeply rooted. travel the country It highlights theoretical fragility.

Over the past three years, almost every campaign office nationwide has seen an increase in public records requests, according to Tammy Patrick, chief executive officer of programs for the National Association of Election Administrators.

South Carolina saw a 500% increase in election-related public records requests, Knapp said, largely due to election skeptics submitting model language drafted by conspiracy groups out of state. The state board of elections is asking him for $3.2 million to help set up a new training department and increase technical support. Knapp also wants about $1.2 million to hire his seven staff members, including a spokesperson who works with media, voters and interest groups.

Voting advocates say strong training is especially important in hostile environments where malicious actors can distort cases of incompetence or fraud and undermine the integrity of elections.

Cynthia Holland, who oversees elections in Aiken County, a sprawling rural county in western South Carolina, said the funded training would be a “blessing.” She estimates that since November 2020, four offices have spent more than 100 hours working on record requests.

“Enough time for us to fall behind on the jobs we were supposed to be hired for,” she said.

Officials in Nevada, Oregon and Wisconsin are also proposing increased funding to hire additional staff to handle public requests for election records and information.

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, Democrat, proposes spending $1.9 million over the next two fiscal years to hire 10 staff for the new Election Transparency and Compliance Office to handle requests and complaints Did. Until recently, the Wisconsin Board of Elections had only one attorney for him and one publicist for him to handle complaints.

“Unfortunately, this structure has proven inadequate to address hundreds of thousands of questions and concerns and hundreds of record requests and complaints,” the Election Commission wrote in its budget request. increase.

A separate budget plan by North Carolina’s Democratic governor and Republican-led House of Representatives includes funds to hire more local staff to assist county election commissions with technology, security, and other needs. is included.

Michigan’s Democratic Governor, Gretchen Whitmer, is about to increase the Secretary of State’s overall budget by nearly $10 million. This includes his $3 million increase in branch offices and his $1.2 million in staffing increases in seven of his mobile offices. But that increase is well below the $100 million a year estimated by Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to “address historic investment cuts in Michigan’s election.”

According to a recent Brennan Center for Justice survey of 852 local election officials, about three-quarters of local election officials across the country say they need more budgets in the next few years. Nonpartisan, democracy-focused policy bodies need more spending to hire poll workers and office staff, replace voting equipment, and improve physical and cybersecurity measures I emphasized that

“Things are tense – no doubt. “There are many concerns in the electoral community about what we can do in the remaining 18 months to make sure our election is as strong and secure as possible.”

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Reeve reported from Jefferson, Missouri. Her AP reporters across the country contributed to this report.

Pollard, Cappelletti, and Benheizen are corps members of the Associated Press/Reports for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to cover hidden issues.