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May the bridges we burn light our path forward.

By Michael Starr Hopkins

Democracy does not run itself.

Somebody unlocks the building. Somebody tests the machines. Somebody prints the ballots, trains poll workers, answers the angry phone calls, handles provisional envelopes, explains the cure process, secures drop boxes, and goes home with strangers online calling them criminals.

Then we act surprised when people leave.

Brennan Center found 38 percent of local election officials reported threats, harassment, or abuse in 2025. Issue One found that in 11 Western states, half of counties lost their chief local election official after 2020. The vote count is a person, not a building.

Source label: Brennan Center surveys of local election officials on threats, resources, and disruption planning.

The election-worker story is not a staffing story. It is a pressure story.

Brennan Center's 2026 local election officials survey found 75 percent of local election officials had not received added state or local resources to address federal cuts to election-security services. At least 71 percent had done some preparation or planning for scenarios that could disrupt election administration.

That is the job now: run the election and plan for disruption at the same time.

The safety problem did not disappear after 2024. Brennan's 2025 survey found 38 percent of local election officials reported threats, harassment, or abuse, and 63 percent of those incidents happened in person.

Brennan's 2024 survey found 92 percent of local election officials had taken steps to increase security for voters, workers, and election infrastructure. Earlier Brennan work found high turnover amid safety threats and political interference, with 45 percent of local election officials saying they feared for colleagues' safety.

Issue One's 2026 report put the workforce problem in plain terms: in 11 Western states, half of counties have lost their chief local election official since 2020. Votebeat reported the same finding and tied it to stress, threats, and burnout.

Source label: Issue One and Votebeat reporting on chief local election official turnover in 11 Western states.

This is how elections get weaker without anyone passing a law.

You do not have to shut down a polling place if you make the job so miserable that the people who know how to run it leave. You do not have to break the system if you drain the experience from it and then blame the remaining workers for every delay, line, mistake, rumor, and bad-faith lawsuit.

The person who pays is the clerk trying to hire poll workers while threats come in. The voter pays when the line gets longer, the office loses experience, or the explanation comes from the loudest liar instead of the person who actually knows the rules.

The people counting votes should not need a security plan to do a public-service job.

This fight needs investigators, organizers, lawyers, data people, policy writers, local reporters, and designers who can turn records into pressure.

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