All Democracy is Local: The Critical Role of Mayors and City Leaders in the 2024 Election

By Mary Carr Lee • Mayors Innovation Project

The stakes could not be higher in the 2024 Election and local governments have a critical role to play to help protect the right to vote and ensure free and fair elections.

The Mayors Innovation Project (MIP) was pleased to join the Local Policy Lab in welcoming Corey Dukes, Head of State Election team at Protect Democracy, to discuss how mayors and city leaders can promote accurate, fair information and foster trust in the election process.

“People tend to trust local leaders more than federal and state leaders currently,” says MIP’s Managing Director Kayta Spear. “Hundreds of Mayors practice democracy through their work and now is the time to be Communicator in Chief about election 2024.” Spear shared how mayors and city leaders can help recruit poll workers, allow city employees to be poll watchers on election day, and coordinate free rides to the polls.

Cities from Tallahassee, Florida to Sandusky, Ohio have made election day a paid holiday for city employees. Madison, Wisconsin expanded access to early voting by implementing drop boxes that will remain open throughout the city. Lancaster, Pennsylvania has a collaborative “Lancaster Votes” movement led by the local YWCA to promote voting communication. And the Mayor of Snohomish, Washington, Linda Redmond, outlined successful competitions amongst high school students to register people to vote. “It’s a chance to get young people interested in the process early,” says Redmond, “and they have fun.”

Laura Wood, Vice President of Democracy at Local Policy Lab says the goal is to ensure smooth, fair, and transparent elections not just this year, but every year. But despite these good efforts, Corey Dukes says an erosion of trust in elections, heightened violence, and subversive election deniers remain a threat to the process. With election officials facing scrutiny, vitriol, and drain from their role, states are seeing a high turnover of election staff.

Workable solutions? Dukes says Secretaries of State should provide training, guidance, and a state-wide flow information to election clerks and local officials. Beyond that, there are groups and nonprofit organizations that have left the profession but have expertise for administrators through county associations or associations of election administrators. Municipal leaders should go to the municipal election authority and ask them what they need for support during the election process—in the way of resources, expertise, and time.

Election day 2024 is Tuesday, November 5th!

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash