Military veterans as election workers: Can they rebuild trust in vote?

As a U.S. military family, Ellen Gustafson and her husband have lived and served with plenty of people who “really aren’t similar to you.”

And, she says, she likes that. Lately, she’s particularly appreciated not being stuck in an echo chamber – her social media feeds are filled with “a lot of different political opinions. I’ve always found it an incredible benefit.”

Yet a midterm election season liberally populated with candidates who have signaled that they may refuse to accept the outcome – unless they win – backed by a number of voters who appear to support such sentiments, got her thinking. 

“Despite information to the contrary, people truly believe that elections have been compromised,” she says. “That norm, that bedrock that we’ve all agreed on – somebody wins, somebody loses, and we move on – that is shaky.”

She helped form an organization called Vet the Vote to encourage former troops to volunteer as poll workers, and teamed up with other veterans groups across the country to do the same.

It’s an effort to do in America what service members frequently have been called upon to do abroad: shore up the promise of fairness previously presumed to be inherent in electoral systems.

“It’s a great group of people who know how to get their jobs done for the greater mission – in this case, democracy,” says Ms. Gustafson, a Navy spouse. Though they don’t advertise their military background at the polls, vets bring skills from their service, supporters point out: They are schooled in small-group leadership, tend to take rules and regulations seriously, and have solid training in defusing situations in which people get hot under the collar.

In an election season in which a number of swing states have warned of poll worker shortages – some 60% are over the age of 60, an age group particularly affected by pandemic health concerns – it’s a particularly vital endeavor, analysts add.  

Americans’ trust in the military shaken by Jan. 6

Yet veterans acknowledge, too, that in the wake of former troops being involved in the storming of the U.S. Capitol last year, their presence – which once may have inspired confidence in the electoral process – may now be seen by some as a veiled threat at the polls.

“I think the view of veterans in America took a bit of a hit after Jan. 6,” says Jeremy Butler, chief executive officer of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

The challenge is to make the process about civics rather than about politics, he adds. Jan. 6 “was not a good example of who we are.” 

Since the recruiting effort began earlier this year, veterans organizations have signed up some 65,000 of their ranks, putting a considerable dent in a national shortfall currently estimated at roughly 100,000.

Volunteering at the polls is a chance not only to show up for a country in need, Mr. Butler says, but also to demonstrate that “we want to continue to serve honorably, and that we can have differences politically but come together to support our political process – the absolute antithesis of what happened at the Capitol that day.”

“The most significant thing I’ve done as a citizen”

Retired Marine Corps Lt. Col. Joe Plenzler recalls that when he and his wife, also a retired Marine Corps officer, came home from their local polling station, they were deeply moved.

After years of mailing in absentee ballots because of various assignments and deployments, they had voted in person. “It was so cool,” Mr. Plenzler recalls, “watching the rights you swore your life to defend being exercised by the people.” 

His wife later volunteered to work at the polls. “She said, ‘I’ve got to tell you, that was the most significant thing I’ve done as a citizen in my life,’” Mr. Plenzler recalls. “I said, ‘That’s a big statement – I want to be part of that.’”

The training and work on voting day were “rigorous,” he says. “I’m reading off numbers, someone else is recording numbers, there’s a tamper-proof case, there’s a paper copy of every vote. I’m like, ‘Is this ‘The Hunt for Red October?’” 

Getting more vets out to volunteer, it occurred to Mr. Plenzler, could be a way to convince skeptics of the integrity of the process. While he wasn’t inclined to such skepticism himself, it nonetheless “left me super-confident in how elections are run,” he says. “You can’t walk away from that training and not be.” 

It’s an open question whether voters will have similar confidence in the former service members who raise their hands to help out on Election Day. 

Trust in the military has slipped in recent years: 56% of Americans said they had “a great deal of trust and confidence” in the armed services in 2021, down from 70% in 2018, according to the Ronald Reagan Institute.

Still, that figure was far higher than for other public institutions, including Congress at 10%, for example. 

Countering extremism, bridging divides

It is in part the esteem in which veterans are generally held that made their participation in the Jan. 6 attacks more shocking, says Katherine Kuzminski, director of the Military, Veterans, and Society program at the Center for a New American Security. 

Those figures were relatively “small numbers, but they had a large impact,” she adds. Getting vets to volunteer at the polls is a “way to demonstrate that the majority are good members of the community, invested in the health of democracy.” 

Civic engagement could also help counter extremism in the ranks among vets who find themselves looking for a sense of belonging after they leave the service. The search to fill that void can make them easy marks for extremist organizations anxious to take advantage of their credibility and affinity for camaraderie, analysts add.

“The post-9/11 community is always looking for more ways to serve,” Mr. Butler says. “It’s a real opportunity to give back to the country and our fellow citizens.” 

It also helps to bridge a civil-military divide that troubles many veterans, adds Mr. Plenzler, who serves on the board of We the Veterans Society for American Democracy. “You take a step towards your community, and they’ll take a step towards you.” 

Leaving uniforms and personal politics behind

Efforts to recruit nonpartisan poll workers are particularly important, analysts note, given that those who continue to deny the outcome of the 2020 presidential election are also calling on supporters to sign up to serve within America’s local democratic infrastructure. 

Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon is a prominent supporter of this so-called precinct strategy, which has also been endorsed by Donald Trump as a way to “take back our great country from the ground up.” 

The Vet the Vote movement anticipated that it would be associated with partisan attacks on democracy, “from ‘They’re militarizing the polls’ on the left to ‘This is a bunch of lefty vets’ on the right,” Mr. Plenzler says.

For this reason, the group has been deliberate in its nonpartisan choices, down to the color of its online swag. Everything from the water bottles to the tote bags is purple (a combination of blue and red), and there are no camouflage prints in sight. The idea, it says, is to distance the organization, and the vets who take part, from any militaristic overtones. 

Roman soldiers left their red capes and armor in camps outside the city when they returned from war, notes Mr. Plenzler. “It’s symbolic of our return from military duty to rejoin with our fellow citizens.”

“We’re not naive or Pollyannaish, pretending there aren’t challenges,” Ms. Gustafson says. “But we want to reconnect to this election, not by ‘I’m red’ or ‘I’m blue’ and ‘Let’s fight it out’ but by ‘Wow, we do this. Elections are what we do in America – and we’re the best at this.’”