For those who have been in the middle of previous grant cycles, we know that projects must be developed, submitted, approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) before an award of grant funding can be made. The announcement of awards has to be made before the end of September 2020, and then a contract to the respective states must be executed. Then, the state has to do subcontracts with the grant recipients, most likely counties.
All of the above means that grant funds won't become available until very late in 2020 or 2021. Well after the November 2020 election.
I expect that some federal official will tout the funding and the priority towards election security as "great news" for the 2020 election cycle. It sounds good on the surface, but in reality, the money will be future elections — not for 2020.
The above is an example of how the numbers don't lie; it is the interpretation of the funding/data/timeline that is misconstrued to make a point.
