Navigating Election Storms: Change and Stability in Election Official Attitudes

• In Event: #TrustedInfo: Election Administration and Voter Confidence in the U.S.

Abstract

Since 2016, local election officials have faced historic and unprecedented challenges. From fears of foreign interference through hacking, to a global pandemic rapidly transforming Election Day in America, local election officials have been steady at the helm while also seeing record turnout and contentious local and national contests. This paper explores the perspectives of local election officials during this time period using four years of survey data collected in 2018, 2019, 2020 and in 2022. This paper is the first effort to explore patterns over time. Across this time period, local election officials have shown what we refer to as increasingly ‘voter-centric’ attitudes. These officials see their role as more than just an instrumental one, and instead see their work as key to preserving or even increasing access for voters. Voter education and engagement is reported to be a key benefit or source of job satisfaction for an overwhelming proportion of administrators. Support for distance and early voting options has grown over this time period. Support for all mail elections has doubled since 2018. While local election officials have been adroit at responding to the challenges they face, they also share broader concerns about the state of election administration in the US. In some cases, these attitudes are similar to mass public concerns about the security of elections, and with partisan patterns that mirror the public. Over this time period, support for measures such as voter identification have risen among administrators. Here we see some cautionary notes about the role of broader national discourse over elections, and the perspectives of those working to administer them. In addition to these headwinds and challenges, other concerns are a persistent constant: funding, staffing, and access to poll workers are raised each year. But notably, with shifting reasons as the nation faced new challenges with each major election cycle. Finally, we conclude with a review of the challenges facing election administration, namely an increase in the numbers of administrators reporting plans to retire or leave public service. We share the profile of these likely retirees in an effort to estimate the institutional knowledge impacts as we anticipate a changing workforce.

Authors

• Paul Manson, Reed College

• Paul Gronke, Reed College