Elections

October 16, 2025

Who Pays for Election Administration?
The Division of State and Local Responsibilities  

Julie Hochsztein, Research Fellow, and April Tan, Policy Lead
Center for Election Innovation & Research

States and local jurisdictions share responsibility for conducting U.S. elections, including paying for expenses associated with election administration and voter registration. However, the division of these funding responsibilities across (or even within) states is often not clear to policymakers, the public, or election administrators. This leads to misunderstandings about who pays for what aspects of election administration.

These misunderstandings can have significant real-world consequences, with election administrators sometimes left scrambling for funds as policymakers and courts make important decisions based on flawed assumptions about election finance overall and specific election expenses like voting machines, training, polling places, and ballots.

To better clarify funding structures in election administration, the Center for Election Innovation & Research (CEIR) recently released a report detailing which level of government was responsible for various types of election expenses in the administration of statewide general elections in November 2024.