Pipelines to Election Work: Who Becomes an Election Official?
By Paul Manson and Paul Gronke, Elections & Voting Information Center and TJ Pyche, Director of Operations and Partnerships, The Elections Group and
We’ve heard it many times. Sometimes, it happens as they blow out the candles of their retirement cake or turn in their resignation letter. Sometimes we hear it at what we later realize was the last time a person attended a meeting or participated in a webinar.
“The job I got into – the work I signed up for – is not what I am doing now.”
As a community, election officials are no strangers to change. Legislation like the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993 and the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002, or events like the 2000 election, ushered in structural changes to how jurisdictions in the United States conduct elections.
Among other changes, these laws put in place new laws, regulations, and procedures dealing with how local officials handle voter registration, especially the move away from paper and the standardization of information within states; in the certified voting equipment that offices deploy; and in the timing and methods for returning ballots, especially early in-person and absentee voting. In response, many local offices hired new staff and retrained existing staff to meet the new demands.
The elections community is once again in a period of significant structural change. But unlike past moments, hiring more people isn’t necessarily the solution—though we doubt any office would turn down the extra help.
What we’re facing now is a growing recognition that the work of election administration demands deep expertise, both the kind that already exists within offices (and that should be recognized and adequately compensated) and the kind we’ll need even more in the years ahead from future members of the workforce.
Continue reading
Declining Job Satisfaction Among Local Election Administrators
The Elections & Voting Information Center Local Election Official Survey reveals a disturbing trend in the smallest jurisdictions, but identifying the cause is a bigger challenge.
Paul Gronke, PhD | Director, Elections & Voting Information Center
Professor of Political Science, Reed College
June 26, 2025
Also appearing in Electionline Weekly
The Elections & Voting Information Center (EVIC) Local Election Official (LEO) Survey has been conducted annually from 2018-2024, except in 2021. This coverage over time has allowed our research team to identify trends and changes in the election official community across two midterm and two presidential election cycles.
A deeper dive into job satisfaction provided in this policy brief shows a very worrisome trend – a steep and enduring decline in job satisfaction among LEOs serving in the smallest (< 5,001 registered voters) jurisdictions. These differences remain robust even in the face of other features of the work environment.
This brief shows that we can identify three independent drivers of job satisfaction. One is changes in workload, and the second is experiences with threats and harassment. The third is jurisdiction size, but as a causal factor, that driver remains not fully understood.
Ultimately, this policy brief shows how critical it is not to lose focus on the very distinctive nature of the 56% of American LEOs who occupy positions in the smallest jurisdictions. While these LEOs serve a small proportion of voters nationwide, they are the face of democracy to millions of Americans living in townships and rural areas. They want to deliver democracy to their citizens, just like election administrators in larger jurisdictions, but these results show how deeply impacted they have been by changes in workload and a toxic political climate.
Continue reading
Voter Education: Right-Sizing Funding and Support for Local Election Officials
- Thessalia (Lia) Merivaki, PhD | Associate Teaching Professor, Georgetown University, McCourt School of Public Policy | Associate Research Professor, The Massive Data Institute, Georgetown University
- Mara Suttmann-Lea, PhD | Associate Professor of American Politics, Connecticut College
- Paul Gronke, PhD | Professor of Political Science, Reed College | Founder & Director, Elections & Voting Information Center
Local election officials (LEOs) play a key role in educating voters. But LEOs have to balance voter education with other competing needs and demands.
Results from the 2024 Elections & Voting Information (EVIC) Local Election Official Survey and ongoing research by Merivaki and Suttmann-Lea identify three important lessons for election practitioners, policymakers, and others in the democracy space:
- Across the board, LEOs say voter education is important and professionally fulfilling.
- LEOs who serve in medium-sized jurisdictions (5001 – 25,000 and 25,001 – 100,000 registered voters) are most likely to say that resource constraints limit their ability to educate voters.
- We think this is because medium-sized jurisdictions have too many voters to rely solely on face-to-face channels (like in the smallest jurisdictions), but have insufficient staff and resources to manage multiple communication channels (like in the largest jurisdictions).
The policy solution is to right-size funding and resources for election offices, paying particular close attention to the medium-sized jurisdictions that face the greatest challenges.
Continue reading
From Scarcity to Safety: Mitigating Turnover Among Local Election Officials
By Yuguo Liao, PhD, Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Policy Administration, University of Missouri-St. Louis and David C. Kimball, PhD, Professor of Political Science, University of Missouri-St. Louis (SPECIAL FOR ELECTIONLINEWEEKLY)
Local election officials (LEOs) are vital to maintaining trust and efficiency in the democratic process. However, turnover intentions among LEOs are concerningly high, with environmental challenges like resource scarcity and safety concerns significantly influencing decisions to leave their positions.
In the work our University of Missouri-St. Louis team conducted in conjunction with the Elections & Voting Information Center (EVIC) and EVIC’s principal researchers Paul Gronke, PhD, (Reed College) and Paul Manson, PhD, (Center for Public Service at Portland State University), we studied resource scarcity and safety concerns and their impact on LEOs’ decisions about leaving their positions. The EVIC team helped facilitate our work by integrating some of our research questions into their 2024 EVIC Local Election Official Survey.
With regard to resource scarcity, our research has shown that limited funding affects nearly 30% of all LEOs of all sized jurisdictions, rising to over 40% in mid-sized jurisdictions, leading to work exhaustion and decreased job satisfaction.
In looking at LEO safety concerns, we found that more than 65% of LEOs report facing verbal or online harassment, and 30% have experienced direct threats.
In the face of these ongoing challenges, we wanted to understand: (1) how workplace conditions (resources and safety) influence LEOs’ turnover decisions, focusing on job satisfaction as the underlying mechanism, and (2) why some LEOs remain despite challenges, examining how psychological empowerment and public service motivation shape the impact of these challenges on LEOs’ job satisfaction and, ultimately, their turnover intentions.
Our findings show the following:
Continue reading
Unduly Burdensome Public Records Requests and their Effects on Local Election Officials
By Shelley Kimball, PhD, Johns Hopkins University
Election officials in local offices across the country have experienced a surge in public records requests in recent years, and some of them are perceived as vexatious, unduly burdensome, frustrating, voluminous, overwhelming, or harassing. While requests for information are fundamental to government transparency, unduly burdensome requests are straining the limited resources of election officials.
Results from the 2024 Elections & Voting Information Center (EVIC) Local Election Official (LEO) Survey show that while election officials recognize the increasing burden of excessive requests, their preferred solutions emphasize transparency, openness, and the use of technology rather than punitive measures.
In the following paragraphs, we outline the issue, examine LEOs’ perspectives, and recommend actionable solutions that balance public access to information with the operational needs of local election offices.
Continue reading
NEW REPORT: Today’s Election Administration Landscape: Findings from the 2024 Elections & Voting Information Center Local Election Official Survey
EVIC’s new report highlights the challenges and successes facing America’s election officials
(EVIC PRESS RELEASE) Portland, OR— February 6, 2025 — Today, the Elections & Voting Information Center (EVIC) announced immediate availability of “Today’s Election Administration Landscape: Findings from the 2024 EVIC Local Election Official Survey” on the 2024 EVIC LEO Survey section of organization’s website at evic.reed.edu.
Local Election Officials (LEOs) are “stewards of democracy,” positioned at the frontline of elections in the United States. They ensure fair, free, accessible, and secure elections. The annual EVIC Local Election Official (LEO) Survey captures the challenges and successes facing election officials each year. In 2024, EVIC heard from over 650 LEOs nationwide.
“LEOs continue to manage the new obstacles that come with each election,” said report co-author Paul Manson, PhD, EVIC Research Director and Research Assistant Professor at the Center for Public Service at Portland State University. “They have endured challenges from political forces, local finance and budget changes, and shifting state election policy – and as stewards of democracy, they continue to serve voters with dedication.”
Continue reading
The 2024 EVIC Local Election Official Survey report provides a comprehensive look at the state of election administration in the United States
Local Election Officials (LEOs) are “stewards of democracy,” positioned at the frontline of
elections in the United States. They ensure fair, free, accessible, and secure elections. The annual
Elections & Voting Information Center (EVIC) Local Election Official (LEO) Survey captures the
challenges and successes facing election officials each year. In 2024, we heard from over 650 LEOs
nationwide.
LEOs continue to manage the new obstacles that come with each election. They have endured
challenges from political forces, local finance and budget changes, and shifting state election
policy. As stewards of democracy, they continue to serve voters with dedication. However, we are
concerned that ongoing stressors will result in accelerated departures from election offices. Hiring
difficulties also suggest that these pressures are not limited to the chief local election official and
create challenges at all levels of election offices.
The 2024 election administration experience was relatively uneventful compared to past elections.
While the election results were rapid and clear, we share a note of caution.
- Since 2020, key measures indicate that job stress remains high.
- Job satisfaction has fallen and is not recovering.
- The number of reported retirement plans remains high, and LEOs continue to share experiencing threats and harassment.
- Full-time hiring has become more difficult.
- Localities report highly diverse revenue sources for funding operations.
The report closes with a review of LEOs’ perspectives on the performance of US elections and their role in voter education and engagement.
EVIC Research Director Paul Manson previews the 2024 EVIC LEO Survey at the National Association of State Election Directors Meeting
Elections & Voting Information Center (EVIC) Research Director Paul Manson, PhD, presented at the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) winter conference in Washington, DC on February 3, 2025.
Paul’s presentation featured a preview of the forthcoming 2024 EVIC Local Election Official (LEO) Survey report, focused on LEO job satisfaction, hiring challenges, and the diverse funding models used across local election jurisdictions.
I am thankful for the opportunity to present our 2024 survey results to election leaders from across the United States at the NASED conference. I hope these results can support them in their critical work at the state and local levels.
