I read an essay that claimed there are 500,000 elected officials in the United States government. That seems improbable. We’ve got a President, a Vice President, 541 assorted members of Congress, and then what? 499,457 miscellaneous elected officials?
My guess is that the writer was counting up all of the elected officials in the United States not just those in the national government. So we have Governors, Lieutenant Governors, State Senators and Representatives and Assemblymen and Delegates. Plus some states have other elected officials like Attorney Generals or Comptrollers. And then there’s local officials elected at the level of counties, cities, towns, villages, etc.
So what’s the total? How many elected officials are there in the United States?
For purposes of this count, I’m only including public officials - non-governmental offices don’t count. And only people elected by general elections, directly or indirectly - I’m willing to count somebody like the President who’s elected by delegates but not offices like House Speakers or Majority Leaders or Committe Chairmen that are elected by other elected officials.