To address high turnover and the need to recruit new talent into the election administration field, the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office created the Election Administration Student Fellowship Program for the 2024 election cycle. Many current professionals entered the field by chance and developed a passion for the work over time. The Fellowship aimed to introduce college students to the profession early, with the goal of inspiring them to pursue long-term careers in election administration.

The program had two primary objectives:

  1. Provide Arizona college students with hands-on, paid experience in election administration through placements in county election offices.

  2. Offer short-term staffing support to local election offices facing resource shortages.

Recruitment was conducted through public universities, community colleges, internship offices, faculty referrals, and social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Handshake. Fellows were encouraged to participate in multiple aspects of election operations to gain a comprehensive understanding of the profession. The Fellowship assignment ran from July 1-November 30 and paid a total stipend of $15,000. Some students also received college credit for the Fellowship through their individual academic programs. The program was funded with Arizona Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding, provided by the Arizona Governor's office.

Having interns in a Secretary of State’s office is not a new idea but partnering with local county election administration offices to place students “on the job” with actual election officials working in the field is innovative, committed significant staff time to providing mentorship to the Fellows but also support to the county election officials who had agreed to host the students in their offices.

Impact or how it will be measured:

The Arizona Secretary of State's Office believes that this program was a successful investment not just in staff to help county offices, but also to recruit future election administrators. The program has already shown success:

  • Career Interest: Over half of Fellows expressed interest in election administration careers after the program (compared to 15% of nonparticipants). Three Fellows have already accepted full-time election office roles.

  • Public Service Engagement: ~66% would consider local or state government work (vs. 32% of nonparticipants), and 58% would consider federal roles (vs. 35%).

  • Related Field Interest: Fellows reported new interest in cybersecurity, IT, private security, and election law.

  • Voter Education: 100% of Fellows felt confident explaining state voting procedures (vs. 57% of nonparticipants).

  • Confidence in Elections: 83% believed votes in Arizona were counted correctly (vs. 47% of nonparticipants).

  • Recruitment & Staffing: Provided low-cost staffing relief during the election cycle while building a pipeline of trained, motivated future election administrators.

The program provided critical short-term support for election offices and served as a low-cost, scalable model for recruiting young talent into the election administration pipeline. A copy of the full analysis, published in May 2025, is included in the supplemental materials portion of this application.