Now with the 2023 county, legislative, and state offices on the ballot this year from the courthouse to the governor’s mansion attention will now be on these races. Last month, I was hopeful to see $400 million allotted to the improvement of our election infrastructure in the 2023 Congressional funding bill. But now, our cities and towns are facing a cut to the $400 million requested, with Congress’s final budget bill only allocating $75 million for election infrastructure funding and improvements.
Election infrastructure means creating standardization across our country to ensure voters have a safe and secure place to vote and polling administrators have the resources and staff to make it an efficient process. Just this week qualifying has began for the upcoming 2023 elections and primaries will soon be upon us in August. From my earliest days I remember election nights waiting for the returns to come in at the courthouse. There are many stories through the years where on those hot August nights and even into the early morning hours crowds would be anxiously awaiting the returns as they were placed on a board outside the old Conservative office on Lexington Street in Carrollton. A very important component then is as important now with having adequate election infrastructure.
It is incredibly frustrating knowing there are some in Congress that do not support basic improvements such as heat and electricity for polling sites to updated voting technology in this funding bill. They claim to have the public’s best interests in mind, yet their actions indicate otherwise.
Increased and sustained investment is needed to improve safe and secure election infrastructure. Not only is it not enough to make change, but as we approach the 2024 presidential election,our country needs this investment.
Congress now has a chance to become leaders for our country on this issue, especially with a major presidential election coming up. Maintaining the integrity of our electoral system is one of the core methods of upholding democracy – we must not allow anyone to infringe on that.
Ken Strachan serves as the mayor of North Carrollton, is a member of the Mississippi Municipal League Board of directors and is the MML education committee chairman.
