One in five US election officials may quit amid threats, politics

US local election officials are increasingly concerned about threats and political pressure caused by allegations of voter fraud in the last presidential race, a poll shows.

The new poll released on Thursday indicates that one in five of nearly 600 election officials surveyed said that they are somewhat or very unlikely to stay in their jobs through the 2024 contest.

Seventy-five percent said threats against election administrators and staff have increased in recent years, according to the poll conducted by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law.

“There’s a crisis in election administration,” said Larry Norden, the senior director of elections and government at the Brennan Center. “[Election administrators] are concerned, and they’re not getting the support that they need.”

The percentage saying they are “very worried” about political leaders interfering in future elections has almost tripled since before 2020.

The survey also found that over three-fourths of local election officials say what social media companies have done is not enough to stop the spread of false election information.

The poll underlines problems identified in a slew of Reuters reports on harassment and intimidation of election workers following the 2020 elections.

The news organization has documented over 900 threatening and hostile messages to election administrators and staff in 17 states, nearly all alluding to former president Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election.

“We are at a really critical juncture,” said Al Schmidt, former Republican Philadelphia City Commissioner, who received death threats after refusing to support Trump’s claims of widespread election fraud in the 2020 vote.

“The consequence of this threat environment is that you have more people leaving and they’re replaced by less experienced election administrators or people who want to undermine confidence in our system of government.”

According to the new poll, almost one in six election officials said they have received threats, and over half those cases were not reported to law enforcement.

Almost a third of the respondents said they believe their local government could do more to support them, with more than 75% calling on the federal government to do more to support them.

Meanwhile, more than 80% of the election officials said in the poll that social media bears “a lot” of responsibility for spreading election misinformation, and about two-thirds noted that problem had made their jobs “somewhat” or “a lot” more dangerous.

The Brennan Center surveyed 596 local election officials across the country between January 31 and February 14.