A coalition of military veterans and families announced a new effort Tuesday to bolster the ranks of election workers by recruiting within the military community
Vet the Vote, a project of We the Veterans, aims to enlist 100,000 veterans and military family members to be poll workers during the 2022 election, and to help sustain future elections as well.
“We see this as a new norm for veterans and military families members,” said Ellen Gustafson, co-executive director of Vet the Vote. “We don't envision that 2022 is going to be the one time that we call 100,000 military veterans and military film members to do this job.”
Veterans are “deeply committed to democracy,” said Anil Nathan, a second co-executive director. “The challenges are solvable. … Military families can lead.”
According to data collected by Vet the Votes, about 130,000 election workers have quit during the past three midterm cycles and two-thirds of election officials have said they struggle to recruit enough people to staff voting locations.
“Our intention as an organization, We the Veterans, was to find an opportunity for veterans and military family members to volunteer for democracy,” said another of the co-executive directors, Ellen Gustafson, who referenced the seemingly small but important tasks that come with working a polling location.
“All of those incredibly important jobs need to be done by citizens and what better group of citizens than veterans and military family members who've already proven their commitment to stand up and protect our democracy,” she said.
While Vet the Votes wants to support elections nationwide through its nearly two dozen coalition partners, the organization recognizes that some states are more in need than others. The campaign is particularly focused on recruiting poll workers in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio and Wisconsin.
“What we are hoping is that by partly doing a national push we can engage as many veterans as possible, but that, if we do need to get more local .. in areas where really the need is exceptionally great we hope that, through these incredible partner organizations, we can target some of those communities,” Gustafson said.
Retired Gen. George Casey, who in addition to serving as Army chief of staff also supported elections in Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq, is helping launch the effort.
Casey said he got involved in Vet the Vote after he had already signed up to be a poll worker in Arlington, Va.
“Even though that might seem like it's a small thing, confidence in our election process is fundamental to sustaining any democracy,” he said. “And it struck me that, by getting involved, I might just be able to do something to help restore a level of confidence to our electoral system.”
One of the factors driving experienced poll workers away has been a rise in threats made against them since the 2020 election, when Donald Trump and many of his backers claimed, without evidence, that the election had been stolen from him. Many still do not feel safe.
The organizers of Vet the Vote believe they can help alleviate this problem.
“What a perfect call to action for our veteran community, people who are trained at remaining calm under pressure, are trained at actually diffusing complex situations, are trained because of what they do as military members to put country over party and make sure that everyone is mission focused and not getting distracted by by any kind specific small sets,” Gustafson said. “I think that's that really is part of why we think this is a perfect community to step into this opportunity and and again to do this going forward, not just for these 2022 midterms but really going forward.”
Organizers stressed that this is a nonpartisan campaign, regardless of the political beliefs of members of the military community.
For us this is 100 percent purely a pro-democracy effort that has zero connection or affiliation to any level of partisanship,” said Nathan.
Coalition partners include Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, the NFL, Civic Alliance, the National Military Family Association and the Military Officers Association of America.
“We believe that the threat to democracy is real and we're proud to be a part of this initiative in order to strengthen the legitimacy of our elections and ensure that Americans get involved in the electoral process,” said Janessa Goldbeck, CEO of coalition partner VetVoice Foundation.
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.