{"id":18579,"date":"2026-02-03T11:01:56","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T11:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/as-threats-against-public-officials-rise-election-officials-head-for-the-exits\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T11:01:56","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T11:01:56","slug":"as-threats-against-public-officials-rise-election-officials-head-for-the-exits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/as-threats-against-public-officials-rise-election-officials-head-for-the-exits\/","title":{"rendered":"As threats against public officials rise, election officials head for the exits"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Increasingly violent threats toward and harassment of public officials \u2014 from county clerks up to the president \u2014 are driving more and more of those figures out of their jobs, a particular concern among local election officials, who have struggled with attrition for years.<\/p>\n

In the years since the 2020 election, roughly 50 percent of top local election officials across 11 western states have left their jobs since November 2020, according to a new report from Issue One<\/a>, a bipartisan organization that tracks election issues and supports campaign finance reforms.<\/p>\n

The election administration world has been grappling<\/a> with a significant brain drain<\/a> since the one-two punch of the 2020 pandemic and threats arising<\/a> from conspiracy theories surrounding that year\u2019s election. But the new report \u2014 which focuses on election offices in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming \u2014 is particularly concerning because it shows departures haven\u2019t tapered off, marking a 10 percentage point uptick since the group\u2019s 2023 report<\/a> survey.<\/p>\n

The new data on election officials comes at the same time as another report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue \u2014 shared first with POLITICO<\/a> \u2014 found a more than 200 percent increase in violent rhetoric toward public officials when comparing Oct. 2021 to Sept. 2022 with Oct. 2024 to Sept. 2025.<\/p>\n

Taken together, the two reports portend a potentially bleak future for an American democracy that counts on its engaged citizenry to do everything from count votes to make laws.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s a real problem here,\u201d Institute for Strategic Dialogue CEO Sasha Havlicek told Blue Light News, adding that violent rhetoric online is increasingly becoming normalized and accepted. \u201cPeople feel emboldened to speak in certain ways because of the anonymity of online environments that perhaps wouldn’t mirror the way that they behave in their daily lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Election officials across the country are taking notice and are taking new levels of precaution to protect themselves and their staff. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely raises some concerns when people are using threatening and violent language and know where I live. And it just takes one, right?\u201d Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat who recently faced doxxing and death threats<\/a> after she paused undercover license plate requests for ICE agents in Maine, told Blue Light News last week.<\/p>\n

The threats are not limited to members of a particular party. In fact, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue found in its report that \u201cRepublican leaders, particularly President [Donald] Trump, were disproportionately targeted,\u201d by violent rhetoric and threats.<\/p>\n

The July 2024 failed assassination attempt targeting Trump led to a rapid uptick in threats online, according to ISD\u2019s report. And it hasn\u2019t slowed much since.<\/p>\n

Republicans have seen a 364 percent uptick in threats online in the time period ISD studied, a number that \u201cfar outpaced\u201d the 124 percent increase for Democrats.<\/p>\n

Despite repeated calls to tamp down violent rhetoric in the wake of events like Trump\u2019s assassination attempt, there\u2019s often an opposite effect, Havlicek said. \u201cInstead of inspiring some sense of compassion or a deescalation, they do the opposite,\u201d Havlicek said. \u201cThose acts of violence in the real world really push much much more [online] activity in this violent direction, which is quite depressing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taken together, the uptick in violent threats coupled with election officials leaving their posts is worrying elected officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m always concerned when people feel like their personal safety is at risk, and when they can’t stand to do a job that they want to do anymore because of circumstances outside of that job, that sucks,\u201d Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, told Blue Light News.<\/p>\n

The turnover among election officials is especially high in competitive areas that are subject to the most scrutiny, per Issue One\u2019s report.<\/p>\n

Across the West, 80 percent \u201cof counties with close margins in the 2020 presidential election have experienced turnover among their chief local election officials,\u201d while just 40 percent of counties with a margin of 50 percent or more saw turnover.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a problem election officials have long tried to quell. Many officials say that while the departure of longtime officials is concerning, there has been a next generation of workers willing to step up. <\/p>\n

In Arizona, where all 15 of the state\u2019s counties have experienced turnover from top election officials since 2020, according to Issue One\u2019s report, Fontes said he is using a fellowship program<\/a> to bring new blood into election administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of just kind of only being concerned, we’re actually doing stuff about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A version of this article first appeared in Blue Light News Pro\u2019s Morning Score. Want to receive the newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to Blue Light News Pro. You\u2019ll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day\u2019s biggest stories.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Increasingly violent threats toward and harassment of public officials \u2014 from county clerks up to the president \u2014 are driving more and more of those figures out of their jobs, a particular concern among local election officials, who have struggled with attrition for years. In the years since the 2020 election, roughly 50 percent of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18579\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}