The simultaneous influences of elastic stress and ionic fields on switching in ferroelectric liquid crystals are considered. Experiments are performed which show that the combined influences can be quite complex. When a reset pulse is applied, it can enhance or decrease the previous ionic field, as well as change the elastic state of the pixel so that when the reset and switching pulses are close together, the combination of these effects influences the result significantly. In some situations, the outcome from simple partial switching schemes cannot be explained from ionic and elastic effects; we suggest a surface switching effect in this case.