Report Finds Turnover Among Election Officials Reaches New High

(Photo by Spenser Heaps/Utah News Dispatch via the North Dakota Monitor)

(Stateline) – Election officials turned over at the highest rate in at least a quarter century during the last presidential election, according to new research from the Bipartisan Policy Center.

An analysis of shifts in election officials published Tuesday found nearly 41% of election officials administering the 2024 election were different than those in 2020. Turnover has accelerated over the past two decades, rising from about 28% in 2004 to 40.9% last year.

The growing percentage of departing election officials comes after years of challenges. They navigated the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, as well as harassment and false conspiracy theories surrounding stolen elections that persist today.

The analysis released by the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, D.C.-based group that seeks to foster policy cooperation across party lines, represents an updated version of a report that previously examined turnover from 2004 to 2022. The new research, which extends the data through 2024, shows the turnover rate continued to climb.

(Stateline reporter Jonathan Shorman can be reached at jshorman@stateline.org.)