TO new survey from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law predicts a large turnover of local election officials ahead of the 2024 election.
According to the survey, 12% of local officials began working in their roles after the 2020 election, and 11% said they were very likely to resign before next year’s election. A small number fell into both categories: new hires who suggested they would leave.
Such turnover, about 1 in 5 of all poll workers, is significant, the Brennan Center said, equating to one or two election officials leaving office every day since the 2020 election.
Harassment and threats may be driving some of the exits.
Thirty percent of those surveyed said they had been personally harassed, abused, or threatened, while 22% said they personally knew election officials who had left their jobs “at least in part out of fear for their safety, further threats, or intimidation». (Only 4% of respondents said they knew «many» election officials who would resign for that reason; the rest said they knew «one or two.»)
A staggering 73% of those surveyed said they felt threats against poll workers had increased in recent years.
NBC News has reported on the threats and harassment poll workers faced in the wake of the 2020 election and continue to receive. Unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud prompted four people in Buckingham County, Virginia, to quit their jobs this year, with experts warning that losing experience and poll workers may hurt the management of future elections.
Benenson Strategy Group conducted the survey online from March 2 to April 3, interviewing 852 from a list of more than 10,000 local election officials provided by the Brennan Center. The margin of error for the data set was reported as plus or minus 3.22 percentage points.