Current study shared first with shows that election officials nationwide are leaving at the greatest rates in decades, leaving thousands of fresh officials to oversee a tense and high-stakes 2024 presidential election.
Since 2020, 36% of local election offices have changed hands, following a similar migration in 2022 before the midterms, when 39% of jurisdictions had new election officials from four years prior. Both periods had the greatest four-year turnover rates in 20 years, which disturbs election experts and officials who say such jobs are difficult and have a steep learning curve and no margin for error. The turnover rate may climb during 2024.
After Donald Trump erroneously claimed the 2020 presidential election was stolen and voter fraud, election workers were subjected to extraordinary scrutiny, threats, and harassment. Trump continues to anticipate voter fraud as he pursues the presidency for the third time, laying the basis to claim the election was stolen if he loses in November.
The turnover rate has increased in recent years, but researchers found that it has been rising for years, suggesting that new and old difficulties are forcing administrators out. About 28% of local election officials left between 2000 and 2004. Four years later, 31% of election offices changed hands.
UCLA academics Daniel M. Thompson and Joshua Ferrer spent years gathering names and directories of election officials in counties and municipalities nationwide to create the most accurate and comprehensive election worker turnover picture.
Their data was evaluated and released with the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, D.C., think tank, to better understand election administrator attrition due to harassment, violent threats, and increasingly complex and onerous workloads.
Trump and his friends have targeted Phoenix, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Detroit with false fraud claims. The assertions have prompted his fans to protest near and harass officials and poll workers, suggesting election denialism may be driving departures in significant areas. The findings showed no correlation between higher turnover and locations with more dangers, such as states Joe Biden narrowly won in 2020.
Many election offices in Georgia, a competitive state, have received voter challenges, public information requests, and harassment and threats. Since 2020, all four election offices in Georgia's most populated counties, all around Atlanta, have changed hands, along with several lower-level staffers.
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