De-Escalation: A Guide for Election Officials

Election officials regularly interact with voters, election observers, members of the public, the media, and others who may arrive to them and their offices with questions, frustrations, or strongly held concerns. From disputes over no-campaign zones at voting locations to First Amendment auditors visiting election offices, potentially contentious interactions can arise in many election settings.

The Committee for Safe and Secure Elections’ De-Escalation: A Guide for Election Officials provides practical techniques election officials and their teams can use to help restore calm, reduce tension, and prevent difficult interactions from escalating any further.

At the center of the resource is the CLARA Framework: Calm, Listen, Affirm, Respond, Address Alternatives. The framework begins with managing your own stress response before engaging with someone who is upset. From there, it emphasizes active listening, finding points of agreement or empathy, providing clear factual information, and offering constructive next steps when an individual’s concerns cannot be fully resolved.

The resource also provides actionable guidance on body language, tone of voice, changing the setting of an interaction, and “tapping in and tapping out”—allowing another staff member to step into a difficult conversation and potentially reset its tone.

Effective election de-escalation requires more than knowing what to do in the moment. Preparation and practice matter. Election offices should identify likely scenarios, establish clear protocols for when to de-escalate or involve security or law enforcement, and regularly practice realistic situations with frontline staff and poll workers.

Download the guide below to help your election office prepare for difficult interactions and build de-escalation into its broader election safety and security planning.