In the past year, fourteen percent of local election officials in the United States have considered leaving their jobs due to safety concerns. Nearly half know of someone who has left, in part because of fear for their safety.
These findings are from a 2024 Local Election Official Survey, and they reflect a disturbing trend: Local Election Officials, or LEOs, are enduring increasing challenges from political forces, local finance and budget changes, and shifting state election policy.
Researchers are concerned that these ongoing stressors will result in accelerated departures from election offices, which would mean a significant loss of institutional knowledge.
The Elections & Voting Information Center (EVIC) is a non-partisan academic research center led by Paul Gronke of Reed College and Paul Manson of Portland State University. EVIC searches for common sense, non-partisan solutions to identified problems in election administration backed by solid empirical evidence. EVIC’s marquee project is the annual Local Election Official (LEO) Survey that the research team has been undertaking since 2018.
WHO ARE LOCAL ELECTION OFFICIALS?
Local Election Officials (LEOs) are “stewards of democracy” who are positioned at the frontline of elections in the United States. They ensure fair, free, accessible, and secure elections, and they go by different titles in different places. Some are county or township clerks. Some are recorders, or auditors. Some are hired for the position, while about half are elected officials themselves. They make an average of 50 to 60 thousand a year, and around 90 percent are women.
"The U.S. is really unique in that we administer elections, not nationally or at the state level, but at the local level. So, depending on your definition, there are eight to ten thousand offices that run elections in the U.S. They have very different organizational structures, budget systems, and legal settings," Manson said.
This fragmentation means that many members of the public don't understand LEOs, what they do, or what motivates them to serve their communities in this way. It also means policy makers often overlook impacts of new election laws due to not understanding the consequences on these key public administrators. That's why EVIC started its annual LEO survey in 2018. For the past seven years, the survey has tracked changes among LEOs through COVID and through different presidential administrations. 40 percent of LEOs are eligible for retirement by 2028, raising concerns about succession planning.
Some election officials have shared with me, in some places here in Oregon, they're not comfortable telling people what they do for work when they go to the grocery store or meet new people at a public event.
In addition to demographics, the survey also collects information about job satisfaction, experiences of threats and harassment, workloads, funding, and the challenges of misinformation.
EVIC is following up on its 2024 survey by calling 60 of the offices that responded and interviewing them about their budget. How do they fund election administration? What are the challenges they face, and what are their staffing and organizational structures? Going into the future, if there is a shift in how the federal government supports these offices, states may be asked to do more, which could lead to changing funding models.
FEARS FOR PERSONAL SAFETY
Survey results indicate that the individuals who are running elections in the U.S. have a strong public service motivation. They believe in democracy, and they want to make sure that voters have a chance to exercise their rights.
This makes it difficult for them when they encounter skepticism or attacks that question their integrity, because they are overwhelmingly nonpartisan, focused on making sure the rules and laws are followed and that elections are safe, secure and efficient. The below graphic shows how LEOs have responded to threats in the last year, from personal insults to harassment and attacks. Thirty percent say they are now less likely to engage with the public, and 42 percent say they have changed policies and procedures as a result of threats.
"That's been, I think, the hardest shift: it's becoming very personal for many election officials, to the point where they now question whether this is something they can continue to do because of the stress on their homes, and on their personal life," Manson said.
"Some election officials have shared with me, in some places here in Oregon, they're not comfortable telling people what they do for work when they go to the grocery store or meet new people at a public event," Manson said.
One goal of this research is to inform state policy discussions and help local election administrators advocate for funding resources and legal protections. The results of these surveys may serve as a warning to legislatures not to go too fast on adopting new voting methods or voting rules, because in a system so intricate and varied, broad, sweeping changes may have unintended consequences.
Learn more about the research by exploring the below publications.
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