When you or your family member made the commitment to serve the country, that dedication didn’t stop at the front gate of an installation or on retirement day. For military families and veterans, community life takes on a very special meaning. We move often, plant roots quickly, and care deeply about the towns and cities where we live. When election season rolls around, questions often come up about how secure our votes really are. The reassuring reality is that American elections are built on local accountability, on checks and balances, and on deep community involvement (AP News) (PBS). Here is how our election system stays safe and how you can help protect it!
Local elections are run by neighbors. One of the greatest strengths of the American voting system is that it isn’t managed by a central government. Instead, elections are organized at the local level across roughly 10,000 counties, towns, and cities (AP News) (PBS). That means our elections are run by people who live right in our communities! This is intentional. Article I, Section 4 of the United States Constitution, also known as the Elections Clause, gives state legislatures certain powers to set the “times, places and manner” of congressional elections, and most states hand the day-to-day work to counties and towns (Cornell Law). This is reassuring because every community runs its own process with its own local staff, making any widespread, coordinated effort to change votes extremely difficult.
In many states, key steps like checking in voters, transporting ballots and monitoring counting are handled by two or more trained workers, typically in bipartisan teams, so no single person or party works unsupervised (EAC Voter Pamphlet). This built-in accountability helps ensure fairness and transparency from the moment doors open until the final vote is recorded.
Just like PMCSing our military equipment or creating a packing list before a major PCS, voting machines undergo rigorous preparation. Voting equipment is tested before every election, and many jurisdictions test it again afterward (EAC Logic & Accuracy Guide) (CEIR) . Many election offices hold public testing sessions weeks before voting begins. Staff run test decks of ballots with known vote totals through every machine to confirm each machine’s totals match the known results. Machines and ballot boxes are protected with numbered, tamper-evident seals that are logged in chain-of-custody documentation (EAC Logic & Accuracy Guide) (EAC Voter Pamphlet). Federal voting system standards require ballot scanners and tabulators to be kept off the internet and other networks, and many states require the same, which significantly limits the risk of outside tampering.
Almost all votes cast in the U.S. leave a physical paper trail. Local election boards review every provisional and absentee ballot to confirm eligibility. Many jurisdictions conduct post-election audits such as risk-limiting audits, where teams of people physically examine a random sample of paper ballots to double-check that the scanner totals match the actual paper ballots in the box (Election Audits) (Brennan Center for Justice).
Last but most definitely not least, the strongest safeguard in any election is the character of the people running it. Lucky for us, veterans and military family poll workers have signed up with Vet the Vote in 4 out of 5 zip codes, and Vet the Vote has recruited over 176,000 veterans and military family members (Vet the Vote)! The veteran and military family community serves at every level, from poll workers to Secretary of State. We bring the traits that help election day run smoothly: a calm presence under pressure, an eye for detail, an ability to welcome anyone who walks through the door, and an unwavering commitment to duty.
Our election security is more than paper ballots, equipment testing, or tamper-evident seals. It relies on trusted everyday people sitting behind the check-in table. When a neighbor walks in to cast their vote and sees a veteran or military family member greeting them with a steady, neutral hand, it gives everyone confidence in the process. Our communities need more people like us. Encourage others who haven’t already signed up with their local county clerk or board of elections to work the polls for the next election.
One thing you can do today is thank your local election administrators. We have a gratitude wall dedicated to the election administrators currently working our elections. Take a minute to Thank Them Twice.