11 percent of local election officials say it’s likely they’ll quit before 2024 vote: survey

Eleven percent of local election officials in a new poll say it’s likely they’ll quit before the 2024 election, amid a noted uptick in threats and harassment against the workers.

A Brennan Center survey of local election officials released on Tuesday found that 21 percent of local election officials overall either began serving after the 2020 election cycle or are unlikely to continue serving through the 2024 cycle, a turnover rate that the researchers say is “equivalent to one to two local election officials leaving office every day since the 2020 election.”

Nearly three in four local election officials in the poll say they feel threats against them have gone up in recent years — while 25 percent think the threat level has stayed the same and 2 percent think it’s decreased.

Fifty-one percent in the poll say they’re somewhat or very worried that the threats and harassment will hurt retention and recruitment. 

Thirty percent of local election officials say they personally have been “abused, harassed or threatened because of their job as a local election official.”  

Concerns about an election worker shortage come amid a rise in threats against the officials in recent years. 

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), chair of the Senate Rules Committee, last month cited a 2022 Brennan Center poll in a hearing on election administration while calling for increased support to election workers. 

“These dedicated public servants should be able to do their jobs without fear or intimidation,” Klobuchar said, noting that the threats stem, in part, from disinformation around elections. 

Conducted March 2 to April 3, the Benenson Strategy Group surveyed 852 local election officials, and the results had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.22 percentage points.