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In Arizona, where each election is closely watched, officials are under such intense pressure to conduct elections perfectly, that some counties hire a person whose sole duty is ensuring that all laws are followed.
Filling that compliance officer spot isn’t easy. It needs to be someone who knows the complex, technical side of conducting elections, and also is well-versed in all the rules officials must follow.
This year, though, Pima County had a candidate who not only had the right skills and interests, but also had been trained already. Constance Hargrove, elections director in the state’s second-largest county, said she was thrilled when a young law student named Carly Morrison came to her and said she wanted the job.
“I’m like, ‘Yes!’” Hargrove said, pumping both of her fists. “That was awesome.”
Morrison’s interest in the job wasn’t just good luck. It was all part of the state’s plan.
Morrison was one of 18 college students and recent graduates who participated in a state program that placed them in election offices for the 2024 presidential election cycle.
Secretary of State Adrian Fontes launched the Arizona Fellows in Election Administration program last year, an attempt to replenish a drying talent pool and counter widespread turnover among county election officials.
This is a problem not just in Arizona, but across the country. Election offices have lost some of their most experienced workers in the past five years, in part because unproven claims of fraud or malfeasance in elections have brought on added scrutiny, work, harassment, and threats. That’s especially true in Arizona, and other swing states, according to several studies.
Yet there is no pipeline that leads people from college to election jobs. Colleges typically don’t offer election administration courses or degrees, and opportunities for hands-on training through internships or fellowships are rare.
So Fontes, a Democrat, decided to make his own pipeline.
Using one-time federal funding last year, Fontes established a program that paid each of the college students a $15,000 stipend for a five-month stint in county and state election offices.
Morrison, who was enrolled in a dual masters and law degree program at the University of Arizona, heard about the opportunity last spring at a campus event where Fontes was speaking. The college’s main campus is in Tucson, the Pima County seat. She said she didn’t realize until she started the state’s fellowship the following fall how perfectly she fit into an elections career.
“I knew I wanted to work in government, and then when I started to fall in love with election administration, I’m like, ‘Well, duh, this is the backbone of government,’” Morrison said, sitting next to the tabulation room at Pima County’s elections center last week. “This is how society works. It’s so important.”
While other workers are moving away from the profession because of the mounting stress, Morrison said she knew what she was getting into.
“That doesn’t deter me, because I feel so connected to this work,” she said.
In a recent study of the fellowship program, the Bipartisan Policy Center reported the successes of the program — Morrison was one of three fellows to get hired by the election office where they worked — while also recommending improvements. Researchers wrote, for example, that the state should include county officials in the fellows’ weekly check-ins and trainings, and that fellows should be given clearer expectations and substantive tasks from the start of the program.
Morrison said that it worked out for her because she had Hargrove’s full support and support from others in the office. And Hargrove said she thinks she was able to retain Morrison in part because she had entrusted her with substantive tasks, such as leading the team that helped prepare early ballots for counting during the election, rather than busy work.
Fontes is now asking the state Legislature and Gov. Katie Hobbs to add $500,000 to his office’s budget to make the fellowship program permanent. That would allow him to hire two staff members and 20 fellows for fiscal year 2026.
He wants the state to set a “national standard for growing skilled election talent,” he said in a recent news release, and create a model for other states.
Jen Fifield is a reporter for Votebeat based in Arizona. Contact Jen at jfifield@votebeat.org.
