Experts are sounding alarms just over a year out from November 2024 that the presidential election could suffer from chaos and confusion after high turnover of local election officials and workers …

Experts are sounding alarms just over a year out from November 2024 that the presidential election could suffer from chaos and confusion after high turnover of local election officials and workers in key states.

Threats and scrutiny often linked to false claims of voter fraud have contributed to a surge of local election officials leaving their posts in recent years. The exodus could mean understaffed and inexperienced teams are left to grapple with continued conspiracies and misinformation surrounding the election process in 2024, with some running a high-stakes presidential election for the first time.

Richard Hasen, an election law expert and a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, said he’s “quite worried” about the attrition of election officials and workers nationwide but argued it’s “not surprising” given the threats and harassment lobbed at many in the jobs.

  • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
    2·
    1 year ago

    People leaving these posts can be a double blow — their exit leads to a loss of experience and knowledge of the complicated work, and they’re replaced with newer, inexperienced workers who are possibly more prone to mistakes or slowdowns.

    Or prone to trying to put their thumb on the scale. A lot of MAGA zealots think that the Democrats cheat and therefor have no compunction about cheating themselves. Those people would be more than willing to take such positions in order to influence the election outcome.