HARRISBURG – All five counties in the 30th district will receive election integrity grants totaling just over $2 million, said Sen. Judy Ward (R-30).
The Election Integrity Grant Program (EIPG), created as part of Act 88 of 2022, awards funding to help count votes, print ballots and cover other costs related to administrating elections. The district received the following amounts:
- Blair – $398,913.63
- Cumberland – $945,612.33
- Franklin – $507,118.38
- Fulton – $46,820.75
- Huntingdon – $144,880.67
In return, counties must clean up their voter rolls, report the total number of voters registered prior to an election, disclose the number of mail-in votes received within four hours of polls closing, ensure safekeeping of all ballots and count votes on Election Day without interruption.
Act 88 addresses concerns raised during the 2020 election cycle that election grants from the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a non-profit bankrolled largely by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, funneled over $22 million to just a handful of counties. Act 88 now bans state and county elections offices from applying for or accepting outside funding for election administration.
However, to ensure local officials have the resources they need to run our elections, the act creates the EIPG to provide every county with the opportunity to apply for a combined $45 million during the next two upcoming elections.
Funding amounts were based on the number of registered voters within the county in the previous primary election.
