CNN Opinion: A majority of Americans think US democracy is broken. Here are 12 ideas for repairing it
Joe was asked to contribute to this CNN Opinion article on the state of American democracy.
Joe Plenzler: Enlist veterans as election workers
Joe Plenzler
Despite polling that indicates Americans think democracy is on the brink of collapse, we all have a choice. We can either cower before the challenge, or we can act to support, defend and strengthen our experiment in democracy.
After spending two decades serving as a US Marine, I’ve chosen the latter approach. I now belong to We the Veterans, a nonpartisan pro-democracy group committed to building a more perfect union. We believe that positive civic engagement is an antidote to political tribalism and extremism – and that veterans can be a part of the solution.
More specifically, veterans can fill the poll worker deficit currently facing our country. Democracy runs on elections, and elections run on volunteers. If a community does not recruit enough volunteers, it will have fewer polling stations, longer lines and potentially disenfranchised voters.
The pandemic and threats of political violence have severely diminished volunteerism within the traditional cohort of election poll workers, many of whom are 61 years of age and older. According to one estimate, the US requires more than 1.1 million volunteer poll workers to administer elections, and experts now project a shortage of about 130,000 going into November.
To meet this challenge, We the Veterans has launched its first nationwide public awareness campaign called Vet the Vote to recruit 100,000 veterans and family members to become poll workers in their communities. To date, we have recruited more than 60,000 poll workers.
The military – including its veterans – is one of the most trusted institutions in our society, and it is our hope that when Americans see their veterans conspicuously serving in their polling stations, it will increase their faith in their electoral system and its outcomes. Additionally, veterans are trained to deescalate moments of tension and may be best suited to address any potential threats at the polls.
Joe Plenzler is a 20-year veteran of the US Marine Corps who served in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is an entrepreneur and an election judge in Maryland. Plenzler is also on the board of We the Veterans and co-creator of Vet the Vote, a nationwide campaign to recruit 100,000 veterans and their family members to be poll workers.
