Senate Committee Finds Nation Losing Election Workers

The Senate Rules Committee has identified concerns driving many experienced poll workers into early retirement and making it difficult to recruit new ones. Issues such as harassment, excessive public information requests, frivolous lawsuits, and misinformation are affecting election administration.

The recent study cited by Committee Chairperson Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) reported that one in three election workers are worried about their safety, and one in six have been threatened. Klobuchar opened the two-hour hearing calling for support for election officials.

One way to solve the problems facing election administration is to “tackle the spread of misinformation on social media,” said Klobuchar.

Klobuchar supports more federal funds for state and local election administration, whereas ranking member Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) says that “States have the primary responsibility to administer elections”. Fischer opposed a “one-size-fits-all federal takeover of elections,” and suggested that security could be better with decentralized administration. Fischer acknowledged the problem of the loss of experienced election workers, calling for increased efforts to recruit, train, and retain dedicated workers.

Election Workers Retiring Early

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) has revealed that nationwide, one in three election workers have left their positions. The Democrat Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver from New Mexico testified that six election workers in her state were the targets of drive-by shootings and were followed home, but she did not reveal if any were injured. Oliver also said that county clerks are receiving information requests from “self-described detectives” that they don’t use. She labeled this practice as a “weaponization of public records requests,” which is often accompanied by “threatening and harassing activity.”

New Mexico has implemented stricter penalties for people threatening election officials. Oliver identified staffing issues and outdated equipment and technology as matters of concern in conduct of elections in New Mexico. Oliver also emphasized the need for more equity in access to mail-in voting.

Sen. Michael Bennett (D-Colo.) advocated for mail-in voting because it gave him more time to study complex ballot proposals than when he voted in person. Bennett stated that, in Colorado, “95 percent of Colorado voters voted by mail” in 2022. On the other hand, Fischer argued that people in sparsely populated states, who live great distances from polling places, need to be able to vote by mail, and Bennett lamented that there were 80 bills offered in 23 states to limit voting by mail.

Padilla called for a federal standard to “allow all eligible voters to vote by mail” while preserving in-person voting as an option, and Marcia Johnson of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law told the hearing that voting by mail is “a very secure form of voting.” Oliver agreed, stating that Oregon had sent out over 100 million vote-by-mail ballots since 2000, of which a handful was found to be fraudulent.

Consistent Federal Funding

Oliver argued that the “key” to solving problems with state and local election administration is for the federal government to “provide consistent funding streams.” South Carolina Elections Commissioner Howard Knapp agreed, adding that “consistent, predictable, federal funding” would solve many of the problems highlighted in the hearing. According to Knapp, recent surveys found that 85 percent of South Carolina’s voters are confident in the fairness of their elections, as opposed to only 66 percent nationally. Nonetheless, there is a segment of the state’s population “that’s not going to believe anything we say,” Knapp said. Nebraska Secretary of State Robert Evnen, a Republican, reminded the committee that the U.S. Constitution states that the responsibility of administering elections lies with the states.