MANKATO, Minnesota — There are still eight weeks until Election Day, but for Michael Stalberger, election activity hasn’t exactly ground to a halt this year.
And election administrator isn’t the only hat he wears for Blue Earth County: His official title is property and environmental resources director. Like most places in Minnesota, local election officials also do a lot of other work for their county. Only nine of the state’s 87 counties have full-time, year-round, “elections only” staff, according to the secretary of state’s office.
Stalberger has been active in elections since 2016, but recently that role has come under increasing scrutiny as some Americans sowing doubt about the integrity of our elections — and the results — after 2020.
“It’s really changed our work as professionals in the election world, from kind of a behind-the-scenes number cruncher, kind of a number cruncher, and it’s really put us more on the front burner,” he explained of the shift. “And I think that’s the big change that I’ve noticed from after 2020 to 2022 and now into 2024, is that people just expect us to be much more open and much more out there.”
New expectations, he said, have some people in similar positions reconsidering. And data bears that out: In January 2024, the turnover rate of election officials in Minnesota was 34%, meaning more than a third of the people overseeing election administration this fall are new compared with those in the 2020 election, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. That mirrors national trends, according to a CBS News survey.
Minnesota saw turnover in 30 jurisdictions. The Bipartisan Policy Center found in its report that turnover of election officials has been increasing steadily and perhaps even more today, but noted that while the change is significant, the upward trend is “slow” and not as dramatic as some feared.
“They may have no doubts about what they’re doing, that it’s being done right, but it’s just not what they’re comfortable with. It’s not what they signed up for,” Stalberger said of colleagues who have left their jobs in recent years. “And that’s just different. We have to be able to accept that change. And I think there are people who just say, ‘I can find something else that’s just as fulfilling for me.'”
Turnover may be a normal part of election administration. But Stalberger worries that when experienced people leave, they take with them the wealth of knowledge that comes with experience. He tries to bridge the gap and help those new to the job.
“You have to know what you don’t even know so you can prevent a potential problem from arising,” he explained.
Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon told WCCO that he is aware of the changing of the guard and has shifted his focus in response to the changing of the guard, providing more resources to local partners like Stalberger, as well as election judges who work at the polls.
His office is counting on them to make sure the election goes smoothly, he said. His office doesn’t count ballots.
“Running an election in this state, in any state, is a team sport. We have to be teammates. We have to be partners. We have to support each other and have each other’s backs. And we can’t wait for election season,” Simon said. “So someone’s new and they come in, let’s say, a year and a half before an election, we can’t wait until Labor Day of the election year to get together and come together as a team. So a couple years ago, we realized we have to reach people early and work together early, wherever they are in the state.”
His staff offers more hands-on training earlier in the process. They also help with security plans, not just cybersecurity, but also physical security of polling places, which Simon described as a recent phenomenon.
Over the past two years, the Minnesota Legislature has beefed up protections for election workers in the wake of new threats. It is illegal to intimidate them or disrupt the process, and a person may not “dox” poll workers, or publish personal information such as your home address and contact information online if doing so could cause harm.
“While Minnesota has much lower actual incidents of threats, intimidation and harassment than most other states, we don’t want to be one of those other states,” Simon said. “We don’t want to wait until we’re at the level of those other states to take action.”
In 2023, while working for the Minnesota Association of County Officers, Stalberger conducted a survey of election officials and received 27 responses from people in the same position.
Nearly 58% of respondents said they or someone connected to their office as an election official had been intimidated while performing their official duties. About 46% said they had to take extra security measures at their polling place or election office.
Stalberger hopes there will be no reason to test the strength of the new laws, but he is glad they serve as a line of defense as he and others like him work hard to ensure Minnesotans can easily cast their ballots.
“I’m really proud that we’re all working together in Minnesota on elections,” he said.
Caroline Cummings
