‘Fully staffed’: Election offices relieved after feared poll-worker shortages don’t materialize

By Marshall Cohen, Curt Devine and Bob Ortega, CNN

(CNN) — Threats and smears against election officials and the voting process haven’t killed Americans’ confidence in the system and willingness to work the polls this year.

Election administrators across the country, including the top seven battleground states and big cities like Los Angeles and Minneapolis, are breathing a sigh of relief after the feared shortages of poll workers haven’t materialized, according to interviews with more than 25 election officials.

CNN surveyed a variety of 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 places, process mail ballots and help run 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 poll workers than he needs. And officials in Atlanta said they even “had to cut off recruitment” after a surge of interest.

“Based on recent interactions, large election jurisdictions are presently well-positioned to meet their poll worker staffing needs,” said Carolina Lopez, executive director of the Partnership for Large Election Jurisdictions, a nonprofit that works with officials from both parties who run nearly 100 of the biggest election offices across the country.

Former President Donald Trump’s actions in 2020 – constant lying about how elections are run followed by an attempt to overturn the results – ushered in a toxic era where once-quiet election offices transformed into the dangerous frontlines of US democracy.

This new climate led to a well-documented exodus of election officials and poll workers, and fears of shortages. But civic groups and election offices stepped up efforts in 2022 to fill the gaps and allay the concerns. It appears that their work has largely paid off for the 2024 cycle, though there are still some isolated spots where more could be done.

Despite Trump’s smears against election workers, massive majorities of American voters still have confidence in their state and local election officials, according to a new Pew Research Center poll released Thursday.

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

Swing states in good shape

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

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

“We have had some folks that worked in 2020 say that they don’t want to work this election because of some of those things that happened in 2020,” said David Nathan, a manager from the Detroit elections office who trains election workers.

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

“We had, initially, a group of long-term poll workers who decided not to work the polls any more for personal reasons or security concerns,” Musta said in an interview. “But we’ve been able to backfill the numbers. We haven’t felt that exodus, other than the knowledge that leaves with people who’ve run polling locations 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 the recruitment efforts were “ahead of schedule” compared to past election, and “we don’t have any reported challenges.”

Navigating unexpected twists

Travis Doss, who heads an association of Georgia election officials, said that after the Trump-backed state election board passed new rules requiring hand-counting of ballots, he heard that some poll workers thought about quitting because “that was asking too much” and “too many hours.” But that was resolved after a judge blocked the new rules.

Doss, is 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 spot.”

The aftermath of Hurricane Helene in the western part of 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 poll workers available to help run the early voting sites. For Election Day, the county has confirmed participation from the vast majority of the more than 500 workers needed, which county spokesperson Kassi Day said was “great,” given the circumstances.

But some North Carolina election officials are expressing concern about legislation passed by state lawmakers Thursday that requires some storm-damaged counties to add early-voting sites as voting is already underway.

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

Outside the battlegrounds

The largest election jurisdiction in the country – Los Angeles County – also is 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 vote centers in this election,” said Mike Sanchez, a spokesman for the clerk of Los Angeles County, where more than 4.2 million people voted in 2020.

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

Hamilton County, Ohio, election director Sherry Poland said her office in Cincinnati isn’t seeing a shortage, but still has “a few” unfilled positions for Republican poll workers. Kurt Bahr, the election director 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 spokesman for Hennepin County, Minnesota, which includes Minneapolis, said the county is “fully staffed this year” and hasn’t heard of any shortages in nearby areas.

“Many of our local election judges reapply year after year, and their participation is a point of civic pride,” the county’s spokesperson, Joshua Yetman, said in an email.

Voters trust election officials, poll finds

Despite the disinformation that dominates the election conversation at times, these election workers still enjoy voters’ confidence, according to the Pew poll.

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

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

The poll was conducted from September 30 to October 6.

Polling from over the years has found that voters have far greater confidence and trust in their own local officials than they do of national politicians. The new Pew poll is consistent with that history, but is still notable because of the toxic climate Trump has fostered, where a majority of Republicans still believe the 2020 election was rigged.

Despite broad bipartisan confidence in their work, threats against election officials have 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 charges against people who sent death threats to officials.

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

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