WASHINGTON (7News) — Late Sunday afternoon, a campaign called “Vet the Vote” held a rally in Southeast Washington for some of the many veterans and military families the campaign has recruited to volunteer as poll workers in the election from Tuesday.

“We started this campaign in 2022 when we learned there was a shortage of poll workers in America,” said Ellen Gustafson, co-founder of Vet the Vote, which was launched by the nonprofit We the Veterans and Military Families. “Our goal was one hundred thousand veterans and military family members for this election cycle. Amazingly, we are now proud to say we have reached 163,000.”

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Gustafson said about four out of five zip codes in the country have either a veteran or a volunteer family member that Vet the Vote has helped recruit. The concentration of volunteers is particularly high in the DC area, which has a large military population.

Gustafson said that at a time when many have questioned the integrity of the voting process, she wants voters to know that there are so many veterans who care deeply about the country and our democracy working at the polls.

“You can be really confident that when you go to vote, someone in the process, in that supply chain of your ballot, is a veteran or a military spouse,” she said.

Ben Hovland, a commissioner at the Federal Election Assistance Commission, said they expect just under a million poll workers in total for this presidential election, meaning the 163,000 poll workers recruited by Vet the Vote are a significant help , especially in an era when recruiting election workers was difficult.

“It has been difficult to get enough poll workers for election officials across the country for a long time. But the pandemic has definitely made that difficult,” Hovland said.

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Julie Hendricks is one of the veterans who will be working the polls in Fairfax County on Tuesday. She said she will have to use some of the same skills she used while serving in the Navy.

“Veterans are able to put aside any personal feelings they have to focus on the mission. We understand, in this case, the mission is to allow people to vote and to help people do that,” Hendricks said. “We’re also able to follow checklists, we’re able to follow directions.”

“We’re also able to handle pressure pretty well,” she added. Hendricks served as a helicopter pilot and is a veteran of the Iraq War.

7News asked Hendricks what he would say to anyone concerned about election integrity.

“I could show them the checklist that every poll worker uses for every precinct,” she said. “I could tell them about the training I attended.”