Dina Mahmoud (London)
Amidst the preoccupation of many inside and outside the United States with the identity of the two racehorses for the US presidential elections, scheduled to be held at the end of this year, almost no one pays attention to the long list of difficulties facing the voting process and posing a real threat to it.
Even less than 9 months before Americans head to the voting centers on November 5, the authorities responsible for conducting elections in some states still lack the necessary funding to enable them to complete this task completely, which exposes the entire process to serious technical and organizational problems.
This comes despite the fact that the federal authorities in the United States had decided, since the 2016 elections, to consider voting systems in the elections among the country’s vital infrastructure facilities. Since then, Congress has allocated approximately $995 million to various state authorities to ensure the completion of the electoral process, from both a security and administrative-organizational standpoint.
The current situation raises fears of a repeat of what happened in the 2000 elections, in which the Republican candidate, and later president, George W. Bush and his Democratic rival, Al Gore, who was a deputy to his predecessor, Bill Clinton, competed. In that year, disputes arose over the voting results in the state of Florida, with the results of both candidates being close, in light of similar complaints about the disparity in funding allocated to organizing the voting process between different states.
The lack of funds, which is partly due to the traditional conflicts between Republicans and Democrats in Congress over approving the country’s budget, will prevent the electoral authorities in the states affected by this matter from updating their equipment, training their employees, and protecting their electronic systems from any attacks or hacking attempts.
So far, Congress has only been able to approve temporary funding plans, each of which covers only a few months, and the most recent one expires on March 1, which threatens government agencies with closure, and consequently poses a danger to the elections, if there is no agreement to extend such measures. Partial, or formulating a final agreement regarding the budget.
But experts warn that solving the budget problem may not necessarily guarantee a settlement of the funding crisis facing the upcoming presidential race, which increases the importance of the proposal before the Senate, to allocate a share for elections alone, within the spending package, which is being negotiated between Republican and Democratic legislators.
The Associated Press news agency quoted prominent local officials in states such as Chicago warning that not allocating sufficient funds to secure the necessary expenses for this year’s elections would constitute a frustrating and disappointing matter that would leave them feeling “as if we were alone” in facing many risks and challenges. different types, which have increased in recent years.
Over the past few years, a significant portion of the funds directed to organizing elections in various American states have been allocated to enhancing cybersecurity for the voting process, with the aim of thwarting any potential cyberattacks.
#funding #crisis #threatens #elections #scenario