Ellen Gustafson was near the end of her talk at the 2026 Military Influencer Conference (MIC) in Tampa, Florida, when a man sat down.
Gustafson, co-founder and executive director of the nonprofit We the Veterans and Military Families, was discussing how much the military community plays in securing elections. Because of that, Gustason argued we should trust the results of elections.
That man wasn’t buying it. His brief retort—“Oh, let’s keep it clean”—caused Gustafson’s blood pressure to rise.
Also Read: Active duty military spouses vote 25 points below civilians. The federal government has never asked why.
“It makes me really aggressive when someone tells me that our elections are fundamentally fraudulent, when it’s my people who are there doing it,” said Gustafson, whose husband is in the Navy.
Gustafson’s organization started Vet the Vote in 2022. The initiative was a response to a nationwide shortage of poll workers for that year’s midterm elections. Through the Department of Veterans Affairs, Vet the Vote requested volunteers. By the end of that year, Vet the Vote had 168,000 sign-ups, she said.
Gustafson said the midterms generally require about 600,000 poll workers, so Vet the Vote alone provides about 28% of that total. And that’s not even counting former service members or their family members who become poll workers but aren’t registered through Vet the Vote.
With this year’s midterms approaching on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, Gustafson spoke with We Are The Mighty about voting and election integrity. Her responses were edited for brevity.
You cast your first ballot in 1998. How did it feel to vote for the first time?
“For my 18th birthday, my mom got me a voter registration form, and I thought it was so cool. The local YMCA was my polling location, right near my house [in Pennsylvania], and I thought it was my crossover into adulthood. I actually came back from college [at Columbia University in New York], because I didn’t register for absentee. I walked into this location, and my friends and parents are working and doing their thing. Some of them are [political] party people, and some of them are just poll workers. My aunts were poll workers. I got this very adult thing, and it felt super powerful.”
Are you concerned about poll workers facing potential harassment?
“That was especially a concern in 2022, which is why there was a shortage, and we felt that our population was the best to fill that. People who have military training are trained in de-escalation, but the brand of the military spouse also de-escalates the situation. There is so much universal agreement that we are a group that is generally trustworthy. If you go up to someone who is trying to act up and you lead with, ‘I’m a military spouse; I’m doing my civic duty,’ that de-escalates the situation. My uncle found that as a veteran. Just saying he was a veteran really de-escalated the situation.”
How frustrated do you get when people say their vote doesn’t count?
“The two things that get me frustrated are: ‘My vote doesn’t count,’ and what that guy said over here, ‘Oh, let’s keep it clean.’ Both of those comments are really sad. It’s hard to call yourself a patriot if you don’t think our elections work well and you’ve never been in it. That’s a bit of a misnomer, but votes really do count. Pretty big swings have happened from one party to the other over time, and you can be a part of it. I also think it’s more whether or not you see the number come out on the side you want it. If the number comes out on the side you didn’t want but at least you did your part, that makes a big difference.”
Given where we are as a country today, how confident are you that we can eventually begin to trust the process again?
“It was incredibly rare not to trust elections. It’s pretty common in underdeveloped countries. I’ve seen countries you can go to. Good luck. Have fun with that. This concept has been generated by, honestly, both sides. If you don’t win, you say the election wasn’t trustworthy. That’s adorable to say that if you lost the baseball game, the refs cheated. This is America. We don’t do things that way.
“People say all the time that we don’t know how to do this. We know how to put a nuclear submarine underwater for months at a time, and you don’t think people can be trained to run an election? C’mon. It’s a silly concept, and it’s always said by people who have no experience in the actual election system.”
What feedback do you hear from veterans and spouses on serving as poll workers?
“It’s incredible. Most of them say it’s pretty boring. We did a survey, and 96% of them said they would recommend it to a fellow veteran. Over 80% said it improved their faith in the election system. It’s a moment of patriotic pride to see your neighbors do this thing. There’s very few opportunities for military-connected people to show America what that feels like. We have those big, hard moments [in the military] where the flag is flying and the music is playing. Regular civilians don’t really have those moments. Elections are when you can share that sense of patriotism with your fellow Americans.”
What fueled your passion for elections?
“I found it unpatriotic when I heard people trying to take down a fundamental American system. I didn’t know anything about elections before I started this work. It was about the information I was seeing. When you look at our country and the fact that we have put in so much time and energy into building systems to get people to vote and you meet the public officials who do it, it gets your back up. Don’t denigrate these good Americans. I have the exact same defense of the military as I do of elections. You don’t know. You’ve never been in there. I don’t want to hear it unless you have the actual experience.”
What’s your response when people question mail-in balloting?
“That was created for the United States military, first of all. Second of all, if somehow our military members could be stationed overseas and have communications back in America with their command centers and it’s secure and they are finding out how to do that, you don’t think we can figure out how to get mail to people. There are idiosyncrasies in every state that make the different types of ways they do mail-in balloting different. There are all different systems, but each state has figured out a system for themselves. If you talk to anyone in the military who has done this, they will say their local clerk generally knows who they are. That’s the level of care these public servants give to making sure mail-in ballots are safe and secure. Either get in there and see for yourself or probably assume the best.”
Have you ever served as a poll worker?
“I have been on the wait list in Virginia Beach and now in Fairfax County. This is now my fourth year on the wait list. By the way, that means I live in two areas that are not hurting for poll workers, and that makes me very happy.”
Do you plan to vote in person during the midterms?
“Yes. And you know what’s funny, I was talking to somebody about how voting early will be helpful. ‘Sorry, this is one area where I won’t help election officials as much as I can.’ Because on election day, it’s at my kids’ elementary school, and I love bringing them with me to their own school. There’s something magical about bringing them to their cafeteria and seeing me vote.”
It almost sounds like elections are your Super Bowl.
“It’s cool. We should all feel that way. It’s one day when everyone across the country does one thing together. That doesn’t happen unless we’re watching Super Bowl ads. That’s it: Super Bowl ads and elections.”
Do you ever think of running for public office?
“No. Not now. I have no idea in the future, but it’s not something I’m planning on. I have little kids, and the fact that what we do to public officials is to degrade them and their families is not something I’m willing to put my little kids through right now.”
Moving forward, what is your biggest concern about how people view the election process?
“The fact that really smart, good, patriotic Americans, like the gentleman who came to my talk and said, ‘If they’re clean.” The fact—I’m sure he’s really smart and patriotic and doing what he thinks is right for his country—that he thinks it’s OK to question the way we self-govern, that’s a problem.
“It shouldn’t be a concern. ‘Oh, well, let’s go figure it out.’ Foreign adversaries will never let you figure it out. They will always keep the misinformation flowing and AI-generated bullshit flowing. We need to come together as a country and say, ‘Wait, there are poll workers out there who are telling me it’s fine. I actually can trust my fellow American, especially our veterans, who are in there doing it and I’m just going to walk away from this and not let this become some albatross that we’re all yelling about.’”
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