Biden’s Electoral System Missteps: Funding Cuts and Federal Overreach Exposed

President Joe Biden has often asserted that the return of former President Donald Trump poses an existential threat to democracy, and this has become his primary argument for voters to elect him.

However, a deeper look at how each President supported our electoral system over their various tenure brings this claim into severe question.

During President Trump’s administration, Congress committed between $380 million (in FY2018) and $425 million (in FY2020) to satisfy America’s election infrastructure needs through Help America Vote Act (HAVA) Election Security Grants. Fast forward to the Biden administration, and that pledge has decreased drastically to $75 million for fiscal years 2022 and 2023.

This year, the most recent, last-minute budget measure approved by Congress contained only $55 million for election security.

However, President Biden has not just underfunded programs aimed at strengthening state electoral systems. He has also attempted to subvert the entire electoral system. On March 7, 2021, President Joe Biden urged his administration’s agencies to use federal funds authorized by Congress for agency operations to “promote voter registration and voter participation.”

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And, coincidentally, that excessive influence has been felt disproportionately by demographics that support President Biden’s reelection in 2024.

The repercussions of this executive order have already been felt in Kansas.

According to Krista Postai, CEO of the left-wing NGO Vot-ER, federal funds were routed through her organization to FQHCs in southeast Kansas, which were used to send 65,000 text messages influencing the 2022 Value Them Both amendment referendum. In a webcast discussing their work, she triumphantly stated, “As you can see, we had an impact.”

As a Kansas state representative, leader of the House Committee on Elections, and professor of homeland security at Wichita State University, I am deeply concerned about the safety and security difficulties confronting our committed election officials and poll workers.

voting offices, particularly in our many remote regions and villages, lack some of the most basic resources required to not just prepare for and prevent security risks, but also to conduct the voting process efficiently and effectively.

I am considerably more concerned about President Joe Biden’s unconstitutional attempt to divert monies appropriated by Congress for healthcare, food stamps, and other social programs to influence the 2024 presidential election.

My concerns were heightened last month when Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed House Bill 2618, a bill we passed to try to put an end to this unethical action in Kansas.

Election security is national security. The US Department of Homeland Security labeled America’s election system as “critical infrastructure” in 2017. If we expect our diligent election officials and workers to do their duties and keep our elections safe and secure, we must ensure that they have all of the essential tools and resources.

Congress’s modest $55 million allocation for election security in fiscal 2024, which equates to around $1 million per state, is inadequate. To maintain the security of our election system, we must restore to Trump-era spending levels, as authorized by the people’s representatives in Congress, and put an end to the subversion of our democratic processes by extra-constitutional misappropriation of funds intended to benefit one party.