HAVERHILL – In a closet-sized room stacked with papers inside Haverhill City Hall, four workers stuff envelopes. It is monotonous work, but it is required every single election.
The paperwork has caused Haverhill City Clerk Kaitlin Wright and her staff of seven to work long hours and weekends well before election time to avoid getting buried by it.
“Other worldly, in a sense, the workload,” Wright said.
VOTES Act passed in 2020
It is because of the “VOTES Act” passed by the Massachusetts Legislature in 2020 which enacted universal vote by mail and automatic voter registration and Wright says it could be what is driving clerks out of the job.
As of January 2024, 42% of Massachusetts election administrators in 147 jurisdictions left their posts since 2020 according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. That is more than the national rate of 36%.
Filling in the gaps are new administrators like Wright who took over for Haverhill’s longtime clerk in 2023.
“I know that she was tired after the last presidential election,” Wright said.
New blood in the elections process may not be a bad thing. Some, like election administration researcher Eddie Perez, say it can come with lack of experience.
Scrutiny of election officials
“I think that is one of the risks going into this election is again, the combination of the fact that there may be unanticipated contingencies that newer people are less aware of and coupled with the very, very, distorting effect of all of the scrutiny and social media and everything that goes with it,” Perez said.
While other states have dealt with threats against election officials, the Massachusetts Secretary of State says no threat has been prosecuted against a clerk in the Commonwealth between 2020 and the present.
Wright, who has been with the clerk’s office since 2021, says the risk of threats still weigh on her mind.
“We are definitely hypervigilant on things. I mean, the post office has sent to all clerks, what to look for in a suspicious package,” Wright said.
Wright has contingencies for threats and more as she feels the weight of a looming presidential election.
“It is nerve-wracking because there’s a lot at stake here,” she said.
