By Rory Carroll
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – Veterans and the National Football League have teamed up to address the shortage of election workers and are using the buzz around Sunday’s Super Bowl to advance their cause in a critical election year.
“2024 Vet the Vote” was founded by a group of veterans alarmed by the shortage of poll workers, a gap that reached about 120,000 volunteers during the 2022 election, according to federal data.
“We said we know a community that is twice as likely to volunteer in their communities than anyone else,” Joe Plenzler, a Marine Corps veteran and board member with nonprofit group We the Veterans, told Reuters.
“We care deeply about America and the Constitution and voting as a right that we all fought to defend.”
COVID-19 and threats against election officials have dissuaded volunteerism at polling places in recent years.
Plenzler raised his concerns with former Army Chief of Staff General George Casey, who is friends with former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue.
“The next thing you know, Paul took us in to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who ended up tasking his staff to collaborate with us,” he said.
Together they created a national public awareness and recruitment campaign and got over 63,500 veterans and their family members to volunteer to support elections.
“The NFL, especially since 9/11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, have gone out of their way to help remind Americans about the people that are serving for our national defense,” Plenzler said.
“They’ve been great partners, super supportive, very helpful and provided us resources.”
He added that a shortage of election workers means fewer polling stations, longer lines at the ones that are open and ultimately less democracy for everyone.
“The bottom line is that every single one of us put our hand in the air and swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.
“That doesn’t end when you leave active duty and take off the uniform.
“So we encourage America’s 16-plus million veterans to get involved in part of the process.”
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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