US election officials quit at higher rates in 2020 than other cycles, study shows

A new study confirms what election experts have been warning about for years: increased harassment and threats following the 2020 election have led election officials to quit at higher rates than in previous election cycles.

The study, conducted by the Bipartisan Policy Center and using data on more than 18,000 chief election officials across the 50 states, found that while turnover in election offices had been steadily increasing since 2004, election officials have left their jobs at higher rates since the 2020 election – with turnover increasing from 28% in 2004 to 39% in 2022.

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While election worker turnover has increased across the country, the problem is especially pronounced in larger cities. In jurisdictions with more than 100,000 voting-age residents, the turnover rate of election officials has reached close to 46%, the study found. Before 2020, election workers in large jurisdictions typically quit their jobs at a steady rate of 35%.

According to a separate 2022 survey, about 20% of election workers from smaller communities reported harassment, while close to 70% of officials in larger cities faced harassment – with the threats particularly acute in swing states.

Long before the 2020 election, persistent underfunding and an ageing workforce drove turnover in the field of election administration; the increasingly complexities of the job, including the requirement that officials have cybersecurity expertise, has also increased pressure.

Spikes in threats and harassment can often be traced directly to Trump and his allies’ claims of fraud and meddling by Democrats. In a 2023 report, the Guardian found that a deluge of violent threats against election officials in Maricopa county, Arizona, had originated from the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. New laws implemented by states after the 2020 election to limit external funding for election offices and withdraw from the bipartisan voter registration management program Electronic Registration Information Center (Eric) further deprive election officials of resources.

Critically, the study found, head election administrators vacating positions overseeing large jurisdictions were likely to be replaced by administrators with, on average, 11 years of experience in the field.

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The high rate of turnover means that some of the officials administering the presidential election will have less experience leading elections and could lack the institutional knowledge that helps in an increasingly complicated role.

The concern is reflected in reporting by the Guardian, which has covered numerous examples of election offices plagued by high turnover, threats and harassment. In some cases, high turnover has led to real human error, as in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, where high-profile mistakes have fueled conspiracy theories about election administration.

“It has become the expectation that if somebody walks into this office, they’re not going to be here long term,” Emily Cook, Luzerne county’s election director, told the Guardian last month. “You kind of just document everything that you can, prepare as best as you can, at least in my opinion. Learn as much from whoever’s sitting here while they’re here. And we can keep moving forward.”