Election denialism is a losing cause.
Studies of the vote in 2022 put the penalty at anywhere from 2% to 7%, depending on the office.
In other words, Republicans who spread the Big Lie about massive fraud and a stolen 2020 election received significantly less support — in races for secretary of state, governor and Congress — than Republicans who refused to traffic in such nuttiness.
But new research by a political reform group, Issue One, has given us something else to worry about: a troubling exodus of local election officials — those on the front lines fighting for truth, justice and the American way.
In 11 Western states, including California, roughly 40% of the chief local elections officials are new to the job since 2020, the study found.
In four states — Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah — the turnover exceeds 50%.
Why does that matter?
“It takes a long time to learn how to do what we do,” said Ryan Ronco, the elections chief in Placer County and head of the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials. Ronco has spent 30 years in the county clerk’s office; 10 of his 15 staffers are new.
Running a safe and aboveboard election is not simply a matter of turning on the lights at polling places, or sliding a letter opener through an envelope when mail-in ballots arrive.
It requires, among myriad responsibilities, learning how to operate specialized voting machines, combating cybersecurity threats and, increasingly, venturing out in public — to town hall meetings, election seminars and other venues — to explain how election operations work.
“Ensuring elections are accessible, secure and accurate requires trained, dedicated, knowledgeable people,” the Issue One report stated. “When local election officials leave these critical positions, the costs to institutional knowledge and running elections are real. Losing experienced people costs us in countless ways.”
If preserving and protecting the integrity of our election system doesn’t move you, then consider the departure of experienced election professionals from a coldly calculated dollars-and-cents perspective. There’s a price to pay for all that turnover, which requires training a new staffer each time a more experienced election worker departs.
Earlier reports had warned of an exodus of election officials as the menace from election conspiracy-mongers grew. The latest study suggests it’s now happening — particularly in battleground states where election officials have been targeted by harassment and death threats.
It’s not hard to imagine a downward spiral where less-experienced workers goof up an election, causing further doubts about the results and resulting in even more threats of violence, which causes yet another mass exit of election workers.
But there are some encouraging signs.
In California, legislators passed a bill to extend the law protecting election officials from harassment and interference to cover staff members, temporary employees and poll workers. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the legislation Sunday.
At the federal level, prosecutors have stepped up cases against those threatening or harassing election officials.
