Dear Mr. Bear;

Thank you for contacting me with your concerns regarding election integrity. Hearing your views helps me better represent Kentucky in the United States Senate.

Voting lies at the very bedrock of our society, and I believe the voting process should be as accurate, user-friendly, and fraud-proof as possible. Trust in democratic elections is crucial to the prosperity of our constitutional republic.

Throughout my career in the United States Senate, I have fought for fair and effective voting procedures, as well as the elimination of fraud. After the 2000 general election, Congress, the states, and various commissions examined our election procedures and voting technologies to determine whether national standards were necessary. As then-Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, I was a principal sponsor of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), designed to improve our election procedures to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat. HAVA required states and localities to meet minimum technology and administration requirements, such as requiring a permanent paper record with a manual audit capacity for federal elections. The bipartisan legislation also established grant programs to provide assistance to states and localities to improve election technology. During HAVA debate, I staunchly defended the primacy of state and local control over election administration.

On December 19, 2019, the Senate passed, with my vote, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020 (H.R. 1158), which included a provision I cosponsored provide additional election administration grants to states. This legislation provided an additional $425 million for election security and voting system enhancement for the 2020 fiscal year. Kentucky received another $5 million in federal funding for election security under H.R. 1158. Our total allocation for election security for the country has increased to more than $800 million since fiscal year 2018. President Trump signed H.R. 1158 into law on December 20, 2019.

At my direction, the Senate passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act (P.L. 116-136), which I introduced in the Senate on March 19, 2020.

As part of the CARES Act, Congress appropriated $400 million in new HAVA emergency grants specifically to help states prepare for elections during COVID-19. This funding will allow these states to respond to the challenges presented by COVID-19 in the way they see fit, fulfilling their role as the facilitators of our elections. Kentucky received over $6 million from this CARES Act funding.

To ensure election integrity in the United States, all legal ballots must be counted and any illegal ballots must not be. The process should be transparent on all sides and the courts are here to work through concerns.

Because our Commonwealth has jurisdiction over administering elections, you may wish to contact your representatives in the Kentucky General Assembly by visiting: http://www.lrc.ky.gov and the Kentucky State Board of Election’s office by visiting: https://elect.ky.gov. Please rest assured that I will keep your thoughts in mind as the 117h Congress proceeds.

Sincerely,

MITCH McCONNELL
UNITED STATES SENATOR