Sustaining Our Democracy Act

This bill creates a national program to help states run safer, smoother elections. It sets up a new office to manage the program and gives states yearly funds to improve voting systems, hire and protect election workers, and make voting easier for underserved groups, people with disabilities, military and overseas voters, and voters on tribal lands. States can upgrade equipment, expand early and mail voting, boost cybersecurity, and do nonpartisan voter outreach. The funds can be saved and used in future years.

To get funding, each state must submit a public plan explaining how it will spend the money and how it will reduce geographic and racial gaps in access. Plans and state reports must be posted online. Money flows through the Election Assistance Commission to states and local election offices, and it stays available without expiring. Starting in 2026, the amount each state gets is based on how many congressional districts it has, with total funding set each year from a new trust fund that provides $2.5 billion annually through 2035.

The bill bars using these funds to intimidate voters or election workers, block food or water for people waiting in line, remove election officials without cause, defend voter‑suppression efforts, run poor‑quality audits, wrongly purge voters, block people from getting voting rights restored, or buy machines without voter‑verifiable paper ballots. States must set up a complaint process, and decisions can be reviewed by the program’s director and, if needed, in court. The Attorney General can sue to enforce these rules.

Key points:

• Who is affected: State and local election offices; voters, especially underserved groups; election workers.
• What changes: New federal funding and oversight; required public state plans and reports; clear rules on what funds can and cannot support.
• When: Funding and requirements apply starting in fiscal year 2026; the trust fund runs through 2035.