Turnover has plagued local election offices since 2020. One swing state county is trying to recover
Last year, the polls for the midterm elections in Pennsylvania had just opened when the phone started ringing in the Luzerne County election office.
The polling stations were running out of paper for printing ballots. Volunteers and voters were both frustrated.
Emily Cook, who was the interim deputy director of the office and had only been there for two months, ran to the warehouse. She found piles of paper but the wrong type — it had been ordered years ago and was too thick for the county voting equipment.
Conspiracy theories quickly spread. Republican polling stations were targeted. Democrats in charge of elections were trying disenfranchise Republicans.
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Cook, 26, a native of Luzerne county, said that the feeling was one of panic and concern early in the day. This grew into an overwhelming sense panic. “At some point during the day there was a distinct feeling that people were pointing fingers – before the day ended, before anything was investigated.”
The paper shortage was corrected by the new staff later that day. However, the consequences are still being felt in the county with 200,000 voters. This has led to doubts about the way elections are conducted and a hearing before Congress.
This story also serves as a warning about the dangers of a change, which has largely been hidden from the public eye but has changed the landscape of elections in the U.S.A. since the presidential election of 2020: the exodus by local election directors and staff.
Since years, election offices have been understaffed. The year 2020 marked a turning point in the history of the United States, as it was the first time that the country faced pandemics before the presidential election and then saw a rise in hostility following the vote due to false accusations about a rigged election.
The result has been a wave of resignations and retirements, which have created a vacuum in institutional knowledge throughout the country. According to experts in the field, widespread inexperience can create a risky environment in which the slightest mistake in voting or ballot count can be twisted into a plot by conspiracy theorists to subvert the election.
Jennifer Morrell is a former local elections official in Utah and Colorado. She said, “People are tired of the constant criticism and the never-ending work load. They can’t find a balance between their personal and professional lives.” This feels like an extremely precarious situation.
Officials in Pennsylvania estimate that 40 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties have had new directors or assistant directors since 2020. In other presidential swing-states, the turnover is even greater. The first presidential elections will be held in Nevada in 2011, and in Arizona, at least 12 counties have lost a top election official.
In North Carolina, the Republican-controlled legislature recently took steps to gain greater control over state and local elections boards. Since the 2020 election, about a third (33%) of the 100 county election directors has left.
Al Schmidt is aware of the dangers. The Republican, who oversaw elections in Philadelphia in 2010 and received death threats in 2020, knows what lies ahead. Schmidt, now Pennsylvania’s top elections official, said that his department is working to improve training materials and develop relationships with local election officials. This will hopefully reduce future mistakes.
Schmidt stated that there are no retakes for Election Day. Schmidt said, “Everything must be perfect and right every time.”
In recent years, this has not been true in Luzerne county. Locally known as “papergate,” the 2022 ballot fiasco was the latest in a county with five election directors in three years, since the presidential election of 2020.
Some voters were already skeptical about elections due to persistent lies regarding the last presidential election, despite Republicans controlling 10 out of 11 local government board seats.
“There have been a lot of things in this county that people are now sitting back, and the electorate is also sitting back, and saying, ‘They just rigged the election’,” said County Controller Walter Griffith Jr. a Republican who has lived there for many years. I try to tell them that we have to find a way past these things, because they won’t win anything or make anything better.
The county’s election office has seen a lot of turnover, and it is not clear why. However, there is no doubt that the high level of turnover has added to the problems facing the department. Staff reported finding instructions on important election procedures written in scraps of paper.
Griffith and other experts note that recent hires lack significant experience in elections.
“They are brought in because a number of people do not want to work on elections and that is understandable, with so much division,” said Denise Williams. Williams, a Democrat, chairs the Board of Elections. The Board of Elections is a citizen group that was formed under the County Charter that, among its other duties, certifies the election results.
Cook knows the pressures first-hand. She was hired as an administrative assistant but within a year she became interim deputy director despite not having any previous experience in elections. On her first day, in September 2021 when she began her job, the director that hired her gave notice. He was replaced by someone else about eight months prior to his departure.
Cook said, “I find it hard to believe that someone will be here to the end. I have only been here two years.” “I do not begrudge anyone who has left. “It is a difficult position to be in.”
The harassment of election workers attracted the attention of Congress and state legislators, as well as law enforcement agencies, on a national level. Schmidt cited one of the threats that he received during a congressional hearing in 2021: “Tell me the truth, or your kids will be shot dead.” The Justice Department formed a taskforce and has already charged over a dozen individuals across the nation.
In Luzerne county, distrust in elections sometimes boils over at public meetings. A recent meeting of Luzerne County’s elections board was almost exclusively devoted to ballot drop boxes. Conspiracy theories are often centered around these boxes. A few counties have banned these boxes, and the board is considering replacing one that was moved due to this.
The public comments were dominated by people who do not trust the boxes, and feel that the board ignores their concerns. They asked the board to release footage from previous election drop boxes.
If you have nothing to do, then it’s best not to bother.
