Elections are run by people.

Running elections in America is a massive undertaking involving hundreds of thousands of workers. Hard working staff in over 8,000 local and state election offices nationwide handle a wide range of tasks from warehouse management to media relations to cybersecurity. Tens of thousands of seasonal workers join for several weeks around elections to do tasks like logic and accuracy testing, preparing voting machines, and processing absentee ballots. And on Election Day, nearly 1 million Americans step up to work one very long day as poll workers at neighborhood polling places around the country. 

This workforce is under increasing strain. Many local election officials report having urgent needs—such as aging buildings and a lack of adequate heating and cooling—that must be met to ensure the safety and security of our elections. One in three local election officials experienced harassment, abuse, or threats, with one in five concerned for their physical safety. Nearly a quarter of local election officials have left their roles since 2020. 

Efforts like Election Hero Day have sought to highlight and celebrate the role that election workers play in sustaining American democracy.

We can choose to strengthen the elections workforce.

With support from the Democracy Fund, our team at CDCE has spent the last year investigating how to strengthen the elections workforce. We have scanned the literature from across disciplines to surface key insights and done original experiments with partners in the field to better understand the challenges these workers face. We have learned from the experiences of election workers across the country. We have learned from important survey and synthesis work done by colleagues about the specific composition, attributes, and workplace conditions in election administration. And we have learned from others studying ways to strengthen all public sector workforces.

The research is clear - there many ways we can choose to strengthen the elections workforce. We can post readable job ads. We can advertise them strategically. We can follow up with job applicants to keep them interested in open roles and turn them into champions for our field. We can compensate election workers fairly and thank them for their important work. We can clearly articulate the expectations associated with each role and help workers set goals for achieving them.

We can take steps to make sure all workers feel included and able to be themselves at work. We can manage our temp agencies to meet basic quality standards. Again and again and again we observe there are immediately actionable opportunities for both elections officials and advocates to dramatically strengthen the elections workforce.

We know we can choose to strengthen the elections workforce because there is overwhelming data that tells us the impact that making these choices can have. When we choose to strengthen the elections workforce we retain experienced leaders with priceless institutional knowledge. We recruit new workers with vital skill sets who are representative of the voters they serve. We give all election workers the kind of challenging and empowering workplace where they can grow and thrive. And we deliver more secure, trusted, and inclusive elections for the American people.

Last week we published a new resource page with tools and information about how to strengthen the elections workforce. We hope you’ll check it out!

CDCE Election Workforce Resources