This bill adds a new section to chapter 29A.04 RCW creating a grant program, administered by the Secretary of State, to purchase and install cameras around ballot drop boxes. Only county auditors and elections directors are eligible to receive grants. Grant funds are limited to the purchase, installation, or connection of cameras at ballot drop boxes and may not be used for ongoing operational costs. The Office of the Secretary of State is responsible for creating and administering the program; ballot drop box locations are the subject of the cameras. The bill was prefiled 12/03/24, read for the first time 01/13/25, and referred to the Committee on State Government, Tribal Affairs & Elections. The extracted text does not include an appropriation or funding amount, any application or award procedures, timelines or deadlines for implementation, or formal definitions (for example, of "connection" or "ongoing operational costs"). The exact new RCW section number is not provided.

If enacted, the secretary of state will set up a grant program that can pay for the purchase, installation, and connection of cameras at ballot drop boxes, so counties that receive awards are likely to add or upgrade video coverage at those locations. County auditors and elections directors are the only entities that can get the money, so local election offices that win grants will see reduced up-front capital costs but will very likely have to absorb any ongoing costs—like power, monitoring, storage, maintenance, or repairs—because the grants cannot pay for operational expenses. Key implementation details are missing, so the real-world rollout is uncertain: the bill extract does not specify how much money will be available, how grants will be awarded, what “connection” or “ongoing operational costs” include, or any timelines. That uncertainty means some counties may wait to act or pay for cameras themselves, and coverage could be uneven depending on which counties get funded and how they handle the uncovered recurring costs.