Election offices relieved after the feared shortage of polling station members does not materialize

Threats and smears against election officials and the voting process have not killed Americans’ confidence in the system and willingness to influence the polls this year.

Election officials across the country, including the seven major battleground states and major cities such as Los Angeles and Minneapolis, are breathing a sigh of relief as the feared poll worker shortage has not materialized, according to interviews with more than 25 election officials.

CNN conducted a survey of several Democratic and Republican election workers, who largely said they are in good shape and have filled their ranks of volunteers and paid staffers who work at polling stations, process ballots and help administer the election.

The top election official in Raleigh, North Carolina, said they are “fully staffed” with more than 3,000 workers trained for this year, a slight increase from 2020. The clerk of a small Michigan town near Lansing said he has more polling places than him. needs. And officials in Atlanta said they even had to “halt recruitment” after a surge of interest.

“Based on recent interactions, large election jurisdictions are currently well positioned to meet the staffing needs of their poll workers,” said Carolina Lopez, executive director of the Partnership for Large Election Jurisdictions, a nonprofit that works with officials from both parties that employs nearly 100 manage elections. of the largest election offices in the entire country.

Former President Donald Trump’s actions in 2020 – persistent lying about how elections are going, followed by an attempt to overturn the results – ushered in a toxic era where once tranquil election offices turned into the dangerous front lines of American democracy.

This new climate led to a well-documented one exodus of election officials and pollsters, and fear of shortages. But community groups and election agencies have stepped up efforts in 2022 to fill the gaps and address concerns. It appears that their work for the 2024 cycle has largely paid off, although there are still some isolated spots where more could be done.

Despite Trump’s smears against election workers, a large majority of American voters still trust their state and local election officials, a new survey shows. Pew Research Center Survey released on Thursday.

About 90% of Harris supporters and 57% of Trump supporters also said they are confident the 2024 election will go smoothly, the Pew poll found.

Swing states in good condition

Election officials in Pittsburgh, the Philadelphia suburbs, Las Vegas, Reno, Madison, Green Bay, other Wisconsin municipalities, as well as a few smaller counties in swing states, all had positive things to say about the staffing situation this fall.

Detroit has “no vacancies to fill,” said Daniel Baxter, a top elections official in the city. Officials have spent months training teams that are expected to process about 100,000 mail-in ballots in the Democratic stronghold. Yet there are anecdotal examples of pollsters dropping out after the election chaos at Detroit’s vote counting center in 2020.

“There are people who worked in 2020 saying they don’t want to work this election because of some of the things that happened in 2020,” said David Nathan, a Detroit elections office manager who trains election workers.

Eslir Musta, elections director for Coconino County, Arizona, which includes Flagstaff, said administrators there have largely been able to keep pace with retirements.

“Initially we had a group of poll workers who for a long time decided not to participate in the elections anymore due to personal reasons or security concerns,” Musta said in an interview. “But we were able to supplement the figures. We have not felt that exodus, apart from the knowledge that remains with people who have been running polling stations for a number of years.”

Officials in Maricopa County, Arizona, also said they are well positioned heading into November. The sprawling county, which includes Phoenix, is home to a majority of Arizona voters. A county official told CNN that recruitment efforts are “ahead of schedule” compared to previous elections, and “we have no reported issues.”

Navigate unexpected twists and turns

Travis Doss, head of an association of election officials in Georgia, said after the Trump-backed state election board new rules adopted Because he had to manually count the ballots, he heard that some poll workers were thinking of quitting because “it was asking too much” and “too many hours.” But that was resolved after a judge blocked the new rules.

Doss, also the top election official in Richmond County, home to Augusta, added that in his own county “we have waiting lists for poll workers, so we’re in a good place.”

The aftermath of Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina forced election officials in the region earlier this month to reassess staffing plans for polling places.

Buncombe County, home to Ashville, still has two-thirds of its originally planned polling places available to help run the early polls. Before Election Day, the county confirmed the participation of the vast majority of the more than 500 workers needed, which county spokesperson Kassi Day said was “great” given the circumstances.

But some election officials in North Carolina are raising concerns about it legislation Passed Thursday by state lawmakers, it requires some storm-damaged counties to add early voting locations as voting is already underway.

“Polling poll workers don’t grow on trees,” Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the state election board, said during a webinar Thursday when asked about the legislation by CNN.

Beyond the battlefields

The nation’s largest election jurisdiction – Los Angeles County – is also in good shape.

“Fortunately, our recruitment and placement of election workers in the upcoming general election has gone very well and we have met our overall recruitment needs to staff and support 648 voting centers in this election,” said Mike Sanchez, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Clerk’s Office . Angeles County, where more than 4.2 million people voted in 2020.

The diverse province supports 18 languages, he said. Bilingual poll workers have been hired across the province, although they are still looking for more Khmer speakers.

Hamilton County, Ohio, elections director Sherry Poland said her Cincinnati office is not experiencing a shortage but still has “a few” open positions for Republican poll workers. Kurt Bahr, elections director of St. Charles County, near St. Louis, said: “My large suburban county is purple enough that I can recruit enough judges from both parties.” Poland and Bahr are Republicans.

A spokesperson for Hennepin County, Minnesota, which includes Minneapolis, said the county is “fully staffed this year” and has not yet heard of any shortages in nearby areas.

“Many of our local election judges re-enlist year after year, and their participation is a point of civic pride,” county spokesman Joshua Yetman said in an email.

Voters trust election officials, poll findings

Despite the misinformation that sometimes dominates the election conversation, these election workers still enjoy the trust of voters, the Pew poll shows.

About 72% of Trump supporters trust their state election officials this year, according to the poll. (This could be a secretary of state or the chairman of the state election board.) That’s a 15-point drop from Republican voters who were asked the same question in 2018, before the 2020 election saga.

Harris supporters have even more confidence in their state and local election officials to “do a good job” this year. About 91% of Harris voters trust their state leaders, and a near-universal 97% trust their local officials.

The poll was conducted from September 30 to October 6.

Polls in recent years have shown that voters trust their own local officials far more than they trust national politicians. The new Pew poll matches that history, but is still notable for the toxic climate Trump has promoted a majority of Republicans who still believe the 2020 election was rigged.

Despite broad confidence from both parties in their work, there have also been threats against election officials intensified since Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election. This year, election offices have received suspicious packages That led to evacuations, and the Justice Department has filed a steady stream of them costs in return for people who sent death threats to civil servants.

CNN’s Majlie de Puy Kamp, Casey Tolan and Tierney Sneed contributed to this report.

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