New report reveals alarming election official turnover and offers solutions

Staggering numbers of local election officials have left their posts in the last five years, leading to a huge loss of experience and expertise. Since the 2020 presidential election, the public servants who run our elections have weathered a deluge of threats, harassment, heightened stress, and increased scrutiny that does not yet show signs of abating, as evidenced by last week’s FBI seizure of ballots from the 2020 election in Georgia.

A new Issue One analysis illustrates this alarming nationwide trend and finds 50% of chief local election officials in Western states left their jobs between November 2020 and November 2025, often leaving their positions partway through their terms.

Issue One found that more than 250 individuals have left these critical election administration roles in Western states during this time, including 53 officials in the year following the 2024 presidential election.

All told, Issue One found that at least one chief local election official has left their job in 211 of the 414 Western counties and at least two individuals have left the job in 32 Western counties. In one Arizona county, five different people have held the role of elections director since the 2020 presidential election.

“The high turnover rates for our election officials are alarm bells we cannot ignore,” said Issue One Policy Director Michael McNulty. “The officials who run our elections are the unsung heroes of our democracy, and they need additional support now more than ever. Lawmakers and policymakers across the country at every level of government can help alleviate the effects of this alarming trend. And instead of sowing confusion or distrust, political leaders in both parties should stand up for the dedicated officials who ensure free, fair, safe, and secure elections in our country.”

Nearly all of this turnover — roughly 76% — is attributable to people voluntarily leaving these jobs, not the result of losing a reelection contest (just 5%) or term limits (just 13%). In a handful of counties, chief local election officials died in office (2%) and in a few places (4%), county officials have fired or pushed out chief local election officials, or changed who in that county administers elections.

Only in New Mexico was most turnover due to term limits. New Mexico is unique among Western states in placing term limits on all county clerks, who serve as chief local election officials in the state. In the other 10 Western states, roughly 85% of local election officials who left their roles did so voluntarily — with 100% leaving for personal reasons in Idaho, Nevada, and Wyoming.

Issue One selected the 11-state, Western United States for a case study on election official turnover for two main reasons.

First, this region — which includes Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming — contains two major presidential battleground states (Arizona and Nevada), as well as a mix of Democratic-leaning and Republican-leaning states.

Second, a case study of the West enables an apples-to-apples comparison across states, as elections in this region are typically administered at the county level by a single official, regardless of the geographic size or population of each county.

While turnover among election officials has been high across the entire region, Issue One found that it has been especially high in presidential battleground states, counties with close margins in the 2020 presidential election, and populous counties.

In fact: Issue One found that 80% of Western counties with margins of 5% or less in the 2020 presidential election have experienced turnover among their chief local election officials, while just 40% of counties where the margin of victory exceeded 50% have seen local election officials leave their jobs since November 2020.

This suggests that chief local election officials in states and counties with close margins have experienced higher levels of scrutiny, stress, and harassment, resulting in their departure from the field.

The report recommends that governments at all levels implement policies, programs, and partnerships to protect election officials from threats and harassment — as well as increase their commitments to building the pipelines that will attract, recruit, and retain the next generation of election administrators. If swift measures are taken, there is still time for jurisdictions to strengthen the safety, security, and efficiency of the 2026 midterm elections.