Worries about election integrity taking toll on election workers
May 9, 2024, 5:30 PM | Updated: 5:31 pm
FILE: A worker carries a bin of ballots to a rolling cart as election workers process ballots at the Salt Lake County Clerk’s Office on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. (Scott G Winterton/Deseret News)
(Scott G Winterton/Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY– Election Day 2024 is now only six months away.
The way people cast their votes will look like it normally does. The people behind the scenes counting votes might not.
A recent study from the Bipartisan Policy Center found that since 2020, at least one in three U.S. election offices saw a change in leadership.
Related: Clerk details voter safety measures protecting your mail-in ballot from fraud
Election workers have faced increased criticism since the 2020 election after former President Donald Trump made unfounded claims of voter fraud.
One expert thinks that added pressure leads more election workers to walk away.
Taylor Morgan, partner at Morgan & May Public Affairs and host of KSL at Night, said county clerks already have a lot to do, between knowing all the state and federal election statutes and, for many of them, also serving as an auditor.
He said they do all that with what he believes is a low salary.
“They’re not given the support with the budgets and the staff they need…and unfortunately, they’re really only given credit when something goes wrong,” Morgan said. “You throw on top of that some unnecessary, unbased political drama and I think it does become a little too much for a lot of our county elections officials.”
