Elections & terms
election official
The state or local officer responsible for running elections: registering voters, printing ballots, staffing precincts, counting, and certifying results.
In full
American elections are administered locally, by roughly 8,000 jurisdictions under state supervision. The chief state election official is usually the secretary of state, sometimes a board. Local officials, often county clerks, do the operational work. This decentralization limits the reach of any single failure and makes uniform practice impossible.
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A plain-language explanation for civic education, not legal advice. When in doubt, the official source named above controls.