A new report from Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) and the Institute for Responsive Government has found high rates of local election officials (LEOs) leaving office in select states around the country since 2019.

The report comes as thousands of LEOs will be running presidential, congressional, state, and local primary elections for the first time: An average of 21% county-elected LEOs began serving in 2021 and 26% began serving in 2023.

“We’re heading into a highly contentious federal election year, and while we’ve seen high turnover in some states, the real story is that thousands of new local election officials are stepping up to help voters in their community navigate the election process and ensure our elections are secure, accessible, and accurate,” said Sam Oliker-Friedland, executive director of the Institute for Responsive Government. “Local elections officials are showing true leadership in the face of threats and harassment, lack of resources, and an unprecedented amount of scrutiny over the elections process.”

“Just as local election officials are stepping up to serve their communities and ensure our democracy runs smoothly, federal, state, and local governments should step up to ensure they have the resources to succeed,” added Tiana Epps-Johnson, Founder and Executive Director of CTCL. “New election officials need the help of their peers to navigate challenging bureaucracies, need supportive associations and state election departments to provide training and guidance, and need reliable and sustainable funding to ensure that they are able to–and want to–stay in their roles.”

This report will serve as the first part of a series researching LEO turnover and retention. The goal of this first report is to more comprehensively understand the extent of LEO turnover across the U.S. through snapshots of county-elected LEOs from 2019-2023 and to contextualize why LEO turnover might be happening. Ultimately, the desired outcome of this series is to provide insights about LEO turnover that are useful in advocating for much-needed resources for local election officials.

While our findings in this initial report affirm that there are high rates of local election officials leaving office, there is more to the story. Key takeaways from this report include:

• Not all states are experiencing high levels of turnover. There are several states where the vast majority of LEOs have remained in office, including Florida, Louisiana, Minnesota, and Iowa.
• When an LEO does leave office, it’s not all bad news. There are incoming LEOs who bring previous government or election administration experience. There are also LEOs who are new to government and implementing fresh ideas to ensure secure and accessible elections.
• There are several national trends and state-specific factors that may be contributing to LEO turnover. In the coming months, we’ll further explore factors like how receiving additional funding toward election administration, supportive associations and state election departments, and particular structures for local election administration contribute to turnover and retention.

Read the full report here.