2025 Papers

Recent local refusals to certify elections have highlighted the peculiar and politically-charged role local certification officials potentially play within our election administration process. Yet, little is known about these officials. What type of people serve on local canvassing boards? Are they national partisan activists? What do they think about elections? We report the initial results of a voter-file matching and survey of Michigan county canvassers, a mail-to-web survey conducted over the spring of 2025. Across both parties, county canvassers in Michigan are relatively older females, who have lived in their community over ten years longer than a typical county resident. Using the 2020 and 2022 SPAE surveys of Michigan voters as a comparison, we find canvasser opinions on elections and partisan officials largely replicate state partisan difference except in one key area: beliefs of local election fraud. Republican canvassers believe rates of election fraud are much rarer even compared to Democratic voters in the state, likely because
they positively perceive their role in the process.