Paul Gronke, director of EVIC and Reed political science professor, says the results reflect the high levels of stress election workers have experienced in recent years.
By Cara Nixon
February 6, 2025
Job satisfaction among election administrators is continuing to sink, from the Elections & Voting Information Center (EVIC) has found. “Our survey found that local election officials were able to deliver democracy to 150 million Americans in a safe, secure, and accessible manner,” says Paul Gronke, EVIC founder and director and Reed professor of political science. “But the survey also shows how much these dedicated civil servants are subjected to high levels of stress and have to get their job done with insufficient funding and manpower.”
The survey, part of EVIC’s LEO Survey Project, is conducted every federal election year. Since 2020, researchers have been observing a growing negative outlook on election work due to increasing scrutiny, threats, and misinformation stirred by supporters of President Donald Trump. More than half of local election officials (LEOs) have received personal insults, and 36% say they’ve been harassed.
For 2024, survey results showed a mix of pride and frustration from LEOs. Election workers largely still find the work personally meaningful and feel confident in their ability to do their jobs. But since 2020, fewer feel proud to tell others about their work (down from 91% to 78%); fewer feel they can balance their work and home priorities (down from 54% to 34%); and fewer would encourage their child to pursue a career in local election administration (down from 41% to 22%).
This is cause for concern, since 41% of LEOs are also eligible for retirement. “That would translate into over 3,000 officials nationwide, with a massive loss in expertise and institutional knowledge,” Gronke says. “Losing that many experienced election officials could harm our democracy and the confidence that citizens have in election outcomes.”
At the same time, Gronke says election officials continue to express that the job is fast-moving and rewarding, and he’s encouraged by the large effort being made to identify, recruit, and retain the next generation of election workers. “That is the focus of our work at EVIC moving forward,” he says.
The LEO Survey Project was started in 2018, but EVIC has been around much longer, since 2004. And Reed students and alumni have long been part of its journey. Paul Manson ’01 is the research director of EVIC; Jay Lee ’19 was instrumental for the first two years of the LEO Survey Project and recently published a book highlighting some of this work; and Simon Ahn ’23 and Abby Durrant ’24 are two recent graduates who contributed to EVIC efforts over the past four years.