April 3, 2024
TALLAHASSEE — All Voting is Local’s Florida State Director Brad Ashwell issued the following statement in response to Wednesday’s confirmation vote by Hillsborough County commissioners to uphold a budget cut of $200,000 to the county’s elections:
“By going through with this cut to the elections budget, the Hillsborough County commissioners have opened the door for administrative problems in a pivotal 2024 election year. Losing this much in election funding is sure to affect Tampa-area voters as this money directly goes toward essential processes like creating more voter education materials and having more staff helping out at polling places.
“Slashing hundreds of thousands of dollars from an already approved budget could also set a terrifying precedent for Florida’s elections. As a consequence of legislation that has increased the number of voters being moved to inactive status through additional list maintenance, county commissioners used that as an unjust excuse to strip $200,000 in approved funding from the supervisor of elections office. Once again our elected officials in Florida are playing politics with elections and it will be voters who have to suffer.”
Background
All Voting is Local recently released a report on election funding in states and counties across the U.S. That research found that consistently and without exception, election officials are not getting the funds they need to oversee essential voting processes.