Vet The Vote: How veterans teamed up with the NFL to tackle America's Election Poll Worker Crisis
In 2022, America had a major problem - we didn't have enough election poll workers. Every election, we need about 1.2 million people to volunteer to set up polling places, check IDs, issue ballots, tally votes, and report the results. The problem was that our country was short about 120,000 volunteers. COVID-19 and threats of political violence to election poll workers dissuaded many election volunteers - many of whom were 65 years old and older - from helping. When We the Veterans and Military Families learned of this crisis, we took action. First we called our friends who led six of the post-9/11 veteran service organizations and secured their commitment to help. Concurrently, Joe had a conversation with former US Army Chief of Staff General George Casey, USA (ret.) who knew former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who introduced us to current Commissioner Roger Goodell, who tasked his staff to help. Our team of teams grew from 6 to 30 veteran and civic groups and, together, we recruited more than 63, 500 veterans and family members to be election poll workers. At the heart of it all are our first guests, Anna Isaaacson and Ken Edmonds of the NFL who engaged their mighty marketing and communications assets to help increase public awareness of the crisis. This episode is all about how a team of committed American patriots - veteran and civilian - closed more than HALF of America's need for election poll workers in 2022, and how we are launching Vet The Vote 2024 at the Super Bowl in Las Vegas Nevada the week of February 5, 2024. Our goal this year is to recruit 100,000 election poll workers. Will YOU commit to serve our great nation as an election poll worker this year? Find out more at www.VetThe.Vote
