Half of Western U.S. counties have lost top election officials since 2020, report finds
A new analysis from Issue One finds that half of all counties in 11 Western states have lost their chief election official since the 2020 election, underscoring a deepening workforce crisis driven largely by stress, threats, and burnout — not electoral defeat or term limits.
“This isn’t just normal turnover,” the report’s authors wrote in the report, released in advance to Votebeat. “Veteran officials are opting to head for the exits,” taking with them institutional knowledge that can be difficult and costly for local governments to replace.
The study by Issue One, a nonprofit group that works on election and democracy issues, examined post-2020 trends in local election administration in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming, and found widespread turnover among top local election officials.
The findings build on earlier research showing elevated departures after the 2020 election but suggest the trend has not eased even after the 2024 presidential race. In 2025 alone, 53 chief local election officials in Western states left their jobs, nearly matching the 55 who departed in the year after the 2020 election.
https://www.votebeat.org/2026/02/03/western-election-official-turnover-since-2020-issue-one-report/
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