County Receives $62,000 Grant for Elections During COVID-19

Faulkner County has received a $62,807.50 grant to help pay for administering our November 2020 elections during COVID-19 — which means at least that much of the cost of the elections is not coming from Faulkner County revenue/taxpayers.

Across the country, election preparations and activities have generally been more extensive and more expensive this election cycle due to COVID-19, as election workers ensure a safe process for all voters.

County Clerk Margaret Darter applied for Faulkner County’s funds in mid-September from the COVID Response Grant Program through the Center for Tech and Civic Life. The County received the money yesterday.

The grant — which requires no matching amount by the County — is designated for activities in the County Clerk’s office involving

♦  early in-person voting and voting by mail;
♦  poll worker recruiting, training and safety;
♦  voter education about registration and safe voting practices; and
♦  purchasing PPE for use at polling places.

The COVID-19 Response Grant Program “provides funding to U.S. local election offices to help ensure they have the critical resources they need to safely serve every voter in 2020. The grant program is an open call to every local election office in the country…”

The Center for Tech and Civic Life is “a Chicago, Illinois-based center-left election reform advocacy group … funded by many left-of-center funding organizations such as the Skoll Foundation, the Democracy Fund, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation” as well as Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook co-founder) and his wife, says Influence Watch.