Visualized: Federal Role in Elections

Content prepared by the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Policymakers, election officials, members of the public, and election experts from both sides of the aisle have increasingly called on the federal government to support state and local election administration in recent years. State and local governments set most election policy, procedure, and law, but the U.S. Constitution affords the federal government an important role in crafting election policy. To date, federal involvement in elections has been limited and distributed across a complex network of agencies, committees, bureaus, departments, and institutes.

This explainer identifies the primary entities from each branch of the federal government with a role in elections and their overlap and inter-agency collaboration to equip election stakeholders to better use existing resources and advocate for needed improvements.

Click on the image below in order to access the full interactive map via the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Click on the image to access the full interactive map via the Bipartisan Policy Center.