‘Fully staffed’: Election offices relieved after feared poll-worker shortages don’t materialize

Threats and smears against election officials and the voting process haven’t killed Americans’ confidence in the system and willingness to work the polls this year.

Threats and smears against election officials and the voting process haven’t killed Americans’ confidence in the system and willingness to work the polls this year. Election administrators across the country, including the top seven battleground states and big cities like Los Angeles and Minneapolis, are breathing a sigh of relief after the feared shortages of poll workers haven’t materialized, according to interviews with more than 25 election officials. CNN surveyed a variety of Democratic and Republican election workers, who largely said they are in good shape and have filled their ranks of volunteers and paid staffers who work at polling places, process mail ballots and help run the election. The top election official in Raleigh, North Carolina, said they are “fully staffed” with more than 3,000 workers trained for this year, a slight increase from 2020. The clerk of a small Michigan town near Lansing said he has more poll workers than he needs. And officials in Atlanta said they even “had to cut off recruitment” after a surge of interest. “Based on recent interactions, large election jurisdictions are presently well-positioned to meet their poll worker staffing needs,” said Carolina Lopez, executive director of the Partnership for Large Election Jurisdictions, a nonprofit that works with officials from both parties who run nearly 100 of the biggest election offices across the country. Former President Donald Trump’s actions in 2020 – constant lying about how elections are run followed by an attempt to overturn the results – ushered in a toxic era where once-quiet election offices transformed into the dangerous frontlines of US democracy.