Research Reports, Articles, and Blog Postings

Research Reports and Articles

• Paul Manson and Paul Gronke. 2025. Shifting Dynamics of Local Election Administration: Findings Across Six Years of the Local Election Official Survey. Paper presented at the 2025 Meeting of the Southern Political Science Association, San Juan, PR.
• Paul Manson and Paul Gronke. 2022. “Buffeted by Many Storms: Local Election Official Survey Findings from 2018-2022.” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Montreal, CA. Insight into changes in survey responses over a four year period. How has workload, job satisfaction, and other key metrics moved during this critical period.
• Grace Gordon, Paul Gronke, and Paul Manson, 2022. “The Stewards Speak: ‘One Change’ to Improve American Election Administration.” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Southern Political Science Association. A qualitative exploration of LEO responses to the “one change” question that provides LEOs a chance to prioritize democratic improvements in their own words.
• Paul Manson, Natalie Adona, Paul Gronke, and Jay Lee. 2021. “Staffing the Stewards of Democracy: Gender, Race, and Representative Bureaucracy“. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association. Working paper that uses the 2018-2020 LEO survey data to understand why the LEO community is so heavily female and overwhelmingly white.
• Jay Lee and Paul Gronke. January 2020. “The Problems of Minimal Support: Considerations for an Establishment Survey of Local Election Officials.” Annual Conference of the Southern Political Science Association, San Juan, PR. Innovative exploration of statistical sampling and survey weighting issues for surveying local election officials. New version appearing in the 2024 Frontlines of Democracy volume.
• Paul Manson, Natalie Adona, and Paul Gronke. January 2020. “Staffing the Stewards of Democracy: The Demographic and Professional Profile of America’s Local Election Officials.” Annual Meeting of the Southern Political Science Association, San Juan, PR. What are the career profiles and trajectories of American LEOs? The lead author specializes in public administration, and the paper compares local election administration as a part of local/county government to what we know about other county offices.
• Natalie Adona, Paul Gronke, Paul Manson, and Sarah Cole. 2019. “Stewards of Democracy: The Views of America’s Local Election Officials.” Washington DC: Democracy Fund. The final report from the 2018 LEO Survey, including a discussion and rationale for the the survey project.

Blog Postings

• LEO 2024 Survey Blog Posting: The 2024 EVIC LEO survey report provides a comprehensive look at the state of election administration in the United States.
• LEO 2023 Survey Blog Posting: “The State of Election Administration in 2022.” Paul Gronke and Paul Manson, Democracy Fund “Ideas.” November 2, 2022.

• LEO 2020 Survey Blog Postings, all by Paul Gronke, Paul Manson, Jay Lee, and Heather Creek
  • “Amplifying the Perspectives of Officials at the Front Lines of Elections” April 19, 2021.
  • “Understanding the Career Journeys of Today’s Local Election Officials and Anticipating Tomorrow’s Potential Shortage“. April 20, 2021.
  • “Perspectives on Election Policy and Practice from the Local Officials Who Make It Happen“. April 27, 2021.
  • “How Local Election Officials Trained for the Job, Ensured Cybersecurity, And Adapted to the Pandemic.” May 4, 2021.
  • “How Local Election Officials Prepared to Serve Voters During a Pandemic.” May 11, 2021.
  • “Pursuing Diversity and Representation Among Local Election Officials“. May 20, 2021.
  • “Paths Forward: Lessons In Supporting Local Election Administration And Officials.” June 17, 2021.

• LEO 2019 Survey Blog Postings
  • “Stewards of Democracy, Part I: Career pathways and origination stories.” electionline, September 3, 2020.
  • “Stewards of Democracy, Part II: The professional experience of America’s LEOs.” electionline, September 10, 2020.
  • “Stewards of Democracy, Part III: Change and technology in election administration.” electionline, September 17, 2020.
  • “Stewards of Democracy, Part IV: More than the sum of their parts.” electionline, September 24, 2020.
  • “Elections in the Crucible: Stewarding Democracy under Extreme Events.” EVIC/DF Blog. October 30, 2020.