States and localities have primary responsibility for administering elections in the United States, but Congress has tools it can use to support or shape their efforts if it chooses to do so. One of those tools is funding. Congress can use its power to provide—and set conditions on—funding to encourage or help states…

Foreign efforts to interfere in the 2016 elections highlighted the potential for threats to the technologies, facilities, and processes used to administer elections. The federal government has responded to such threats, in part, by proposing and providing funding that can be used to help secure election systems. This…